New Delhi: A 16-year-old girl, allegedly trafficked from Jharkhand, forced into domestic labour and later forcibly married, has been rescued from a house in northwest Delhi’s Rani Bagh in a joint operation by Delhi Police and Jharkhand Police.According to the complaint filed by the girl’s mother, a woman had taken the teen and another minor girl from West Singhbhum district to Delhi five to six years ago after promising their families that the girls would be educated and cared for. The complainant said that she remained in regular contact with her daughter until this March, when she learnt that the teenager was being physically and mentally abused and had been forced into marriage. The mother said that she, along with relatives, travelled to Delhi on March 9 and met her at the accused woman’s office. The daughter then narrated the ordeal.The complainant further alleged that when she confronted the accused about the girl’s age, the woman claimed that she was old enough to marry and had fraudulently procured another Aadhaar card showing her age as 20. The family requested that the girl be allowed to return home, but the accused allegedly refused and threatened them. The mother then lodged a complaint with Jharkhand Police.Nachiketa, an official from Jharkhand Bhawan, said the girl had been brought to Delhi when she was around 12 years old. “When her mother learnt that she had been forced into domestic labour and began searching for her, the traffickers allegedly married her off to a man so that she would be compelled to remain in Delhi,” she said. Virender Kumar of Mission Mukti Foundation, involved in the rescue, said that by the time the rescue team arrived, the alleged traffickers had fled.
