BENGALURU: She is just 19 and she has already gone through a life’s worth of trauma and abuse. The Bangladeshi girl, who was recently gangraped by four of her own countrymen in Bengaluru, was reportedly trafficked when she was 16.
Official sources told TNIE that she is from a small village near Dhaka and is allegedly a victim of human trafficking. “The girl, who has studied up to Class 12, lost her parents 10 years ago. She has a brother, who is an alcoholic and married, back home. He threw her out of the house after he found out that she had a relationship with a man in the village,” the sources said.
“The girl left for Dubai when she was 16 and started working at a cosmetic shop. She says she lost her passport and when she went to lodge a police complaint, she was arrested for overstaying as her visa had expired. She was later deported to Bangladesh,” the sources said.
“Seven months ago, she got in touch with some agents, who are part of an international human trafficking network, and crossed the border to India illegally. She has been to Hyderabad, where she said she was working in a beauty parlour. She frequently visits Kozhikode to meet her boyfriend and she has also been to Goa on a couple of occasions. She tends to cover up, but from her narrative, it is clear that she has been used by an organised human trafficking mafia, which has Bangladeshis and some local people. This gang gets young girls and pushes them into sex trade,” sources added.
“In Bengaluru, she was reportedly working at a massage parlour. Early this year, she was arrested by the CCB and handed over to the City police. A case was registered at the Jeevan Bima Nagar police station under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1986. She also has some girls from Bangladesh in her group,” said the source.
“She was gangraped in a rented flat at Ramamurthy Nagar over some financial dispute and internal issues in her group. People in the vicinity of the flat had objected to their suspicious behaviour and had even complained to the police,” said the source.
According to a magazine, Insider Monkey, Bangladesh has the highest rate of human trafficking in the world. Majority of the girls who are trafficked are sent illegally across the border to India, where they are forced to work as sex workers.
The Bangladesh police have reportedly registered two cases at the Hatirjheel police station under the pornography Act and the human trafficking Acts. One of the prime accused, Ridoy Babo, who is a Tik Tok star in Bangladesh with mass following was allegedly identified by the Tejgaon police through his social media accounts. A resident of Moghbazar in Dhaka his identity was further confirmed by his family members and neighbours from the video. Babo had come to India recently.