BHUBANESWAR: In a shocking incident, a 16-year-old girl was rescued from Bhubaneswar railway station while her husband was trying to sell her to a pimp on recently on November 30.
The girl, rescued by members of an NGO, was allegedly raped on multiple occasions by her husband Yudhistira Pradhan and his friends. She was produced before Khurda Child Welfare Committee (CWC) in a traumatised condition. It took four days for the CWC members to counsel the minor after which she narrated a horrifying sequence of events.
On the basis of the girl's statement a FIR was registered with Kujang Police today, on the charges of rape under IPC and POCSO Act. The minor, belonging to Kujang in Jagatsinghpur district, was kidnapped by Yudhisthira and 10 others in 2014. They pulled her into a SUV assaulted and sedated her and sped on the highway to an unknown location.
When she regained consciousness, she found herself in a dark room and was told by Yudhisthira that she was in Chennai. She was locked in the room for a week during which the minor was raped several times. Later she returned to Odisha on a train. Yudhisthira accompanied her and threatened to kill her if she revealed about her ordeal to co-passengers.
At her village she was initially, outcast by family and relatives who later forced her to marry her kidnapper. After her wedding was solemnised Yudhisthira took her to Chennai stayed there for a year and returned to Paradeep and then went to Bhubaneswar two months back. At all the places Yudhisthira forced the girl into prostitution and took Rs 3000-5000 from the customers.
The girl was spotted by the volunteers of a social organisation while her husband was brokering a deal to sell her off to a pimp. They rescued her and produced her before the CWC where she narrated the entire episode.
Khurda CWC has reported the matter to Jagatsinghpur SP and District Child Protection Officer to expedite legal action against the accused persons. The girl has been shifted to Ruchika open shelter in the Capital City.