From Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Oct 28: A minor girl from Rajabala in Meghalaya’s West Garo Hills district, abducted about a year ago and impregnated by the captor, was rescued from the national capital in a joint operation by the West Garo Hills Police and the Delhi Police, officials said.
The rescued girl gave birth to a baby girl at Tura Civil Hospital on Sunday morning. Investigations revealed that the accused had taken the victim to Delhi when she was still a minor.
After nearly a year in captivity, the girl managed to contact her parents, pleading for help but unable to provide her exact location.
The accused, identified as Atowar Hussain alias Rahul, also a resident of Meghalaya’s Rajabala, was arrested and remanded to 14 days’ judicial custody.
According to the police, the rescue followed months of sustained investigation and coordination among multiple agencies.
The police had been trying to track the accused and the girl for the past year, but it was only recently that they received information about her whereabouts in Delhi. A team of Meghalaya Police, in coordination with its Delhi counterparts, brought back the victim and the accused to Tura. The accused was initially booked for kidnapping, but relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act were added to the case later.
The girl’s distressed parents reached out to the ACHIK pressure group, which immediately intervened and coordinated with the Tura Women Police. Acting on inputs, a joint team comprising members of ACHIK and the girl’s relatives travelled to Delhi on October 21, and after days of searching, they traced the victim to Batla House in South Delhi and alerted the Meghalaya Police.
On October 24, the Tura Women Police, with assistance from the Delhi Police and the Special Police Unit for the Northeastern Region, raided the location, rescuing the girl and arresting Hussain. Legal experts said the case fell under the POCSO Act.
The accused will face charges of kidnapping and human trafficking. Once paternity of the victim’s child is established, the accused will face a long prison term, officials said.
