WOMAN SENTENCED TO 7 YEARS RI FOR PROSTITUTION

PANJIM: Goa Children’s Court today sentenced one Ranjana Pathak to 7 years rigorous imprisonment for trafficking a minor girl from Bangladesh and pushing her into prostitution in 2004.

The accused has also been asked to pay compensation of Rs 50,000 to the victim and in default shall undergo imprisonment for one year. The victim girl was of 14 years, when she was brought from Bangladesh to India by one Aarti alias Parveen and her husband Jitu through illegal channel. The victim was accompanied by two more girls from Bangladesh.

In a complaint to the Panjim police, the victim had said that Aarti had induced her to come to Mumbai on a false inducement to provide job in Dubai. For the said purpose, Aarti had collected Rs 60,000 from the victim’s father.

“I was later handed over to one Rekha in Mumbai, where I was placed under illegal confinement,” the statement of the victim reads. The victim was then taken to Ahmedabad and was forcibly introduced into prostitution. At Ahmedabad the victim was kept in the house of the accused, where she was assaulted by the accused and her family members.

The victim informed court that Pathak forced her to have sexual intercourse with male customers against her wish and will. The victim was rescued by Panjim Police in 2006, when she was in Goa with Pathak and her assistant.

Accordingly, the case was registered before Goa Children’s Court on November 3, 2006. The accused was in custody from September 11 to October 13, 2006, before she was granted anticipatory bail.

Police then took the custody of the accused on December 28, 2010.

The accused, 40 years old in her statement has admitted that the victim had stayed with her in Ahmedabad but as a guest. She however, said that she never forced the victim into prostitution and the allegations made by the victim are false.

Children’s Court President P V Sawaikar has charged the accused for offence under Sec 323 of IPC, Sec 342 read with 34 of IPC, Sec 366-A of IPC, Sec 8 of Goa Children’s Act 2003 and Sec 4 and 5 of Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.