After 4 months, man finds minor daughter in brothel

Sakha Das from Bengal meets his 16-year-old girl; cops agree to book culprits after MiD DAY intervenes

After 4 months, man finds minor daughter in brothel

Sakha Das from Bengal meets his 16-year-old girl; cops agree to book culprits after MiD DAY intervenes

The New Year brought great joy to a man named Sakha Das of Gramjiroh, North 24 Parganas district, West Bengal, as he finally succeeded in tracing his 16-year-old daughter in the city. His daughter and niece were brought to the city last year by his niece's husband and sold into prostitution.

While Das' niece had managed to get out of her brothel and later also find her two-year-old daughter, who had been abandoned in a temple by her husband, his own daughter had remained missing since September.

MiD DAY had reported Das' last visit to the city on November 25, when the Vishrambaug police helped reunite his niece with her two-year-old daughter Papiya.

Now, Das came again to trace his minor daughter. When he and his 25-year-old son reached the city, a constable of the Faraskhana police station helped trace the 16-year-old.

Das now needs to get some formalities done before he can take his girl home with him. As the police asked him to submit papers proving he is her father, he and his son left for West Bengal to get the relevant documents.

After his girl was traced, Das was in tears and bowed down before the constable, saying, "I will not be able to return your good deed in my life."

MiD DAY spoke to the minor and she narrated her horrendous experience of the past four months.

"I was separated from my sister and my brother-in-law Ajay told me he was taking me to his sister's place, but it turned out be a brothel," she said. "Later, I kept on asking where my sister was and they told me that she was also sold. The brothel lady constantly threatened to kill me if I dared to attempt an escape. Whenever they suspected a police raid, they used to shift me to the brothel manager's residence, which was closer by. I was also asked to hide whenever people from my village came searching for me."

MiD DAY gets going
Faraskhana police officials were initially reluctant to take action against the brothel managers. They agreed to book the managers after MiD DAY contacted top police officers and asked them to intervene.

Initially, the Faraskhana police had said that a cognisable offense had already been registered at North 24 Parganas and that the police there would take necessary action.

When MiD DAY took up the matter with Additional Commissioner of Police Prabhatkumar (South Region) and updated him about the case, he said, "Since the West Bengal Police have already registered a cognisable offense against the accused in this matter, we can not register another offense for the very same reason again. The Faraskhana police will send their report to the police station concerned."

But after Prabhatkumar was told that by the time the West Bengal Police arrived in the city, the accused would in all probability have gone into hiding, he said under Section 44 of the Criminal Procedure Code the Faraskhana police would arrest both the accused who forced the girl into prostitution and transfer their custody to the West Bengal Police, where the offense is registered.