11 years on, 5 get life term for trafficking girl

Kolkata: Eleven years after a 16-year-old was raped and pushed into trafficking, a special Pocso court sent five of her tormentors to jail for life, along with a Rs 5 lakh fine. In 2012, after the Basirhat resident sat for her last Madhyamik paper, her boyfriend, Ruhul Kuddus Gazi, tricked her into getting on a Sealdah-bound train with him, drugged her with sleeping pills and sold her at Kolkata a brothel. She fled after two days, but was ostracised by her family. She was then sexually exploited by Gazi’s friend Md Ismail Mondal. She got married, but had to leave after rumours of being a sex worker. Thereafter, she was sold to Pabitra Kumar Bala in Delhi by her employers Swapan and Papiya Rakshit. The duo again sold her to Baguiati’s Sumit Sen.She was finally rescued by cops in September 2013. Eventually, Gazi, Mondal, the Rakshits and Sen were arrested. — Dwaipayan Ghosh.