FROM BANGLADESH TO GOA: A HELPLESS SEX VICTIM’S SAGA

FROM BANGLADESH TO GOA: A HELPLESS SEX VICTIM’S SAGA


What happens in the terribly painful life of a child-trafficking victim? What are the horrors she has to go through beginning with a late night border crossing to regular rape by clients? PETER D’SOUZA and PREETU NAIR investigate further and piece together a 16-year-old girl’s nightmare that ended with her returning home last week. This is a true story.

PANAJI: It is a story of extraordinary pain! A poverty-stricken Bangladeshi family is approached by an apparently well-meaning woman, who offers their daughter a lucrative job with the promise of a fortune. That was the innocuous beginning to an eight-month nightmare that had all the elements of deceit, hatred, lucre and lust.

When Parvin (one of the three women) first visited their home in a village in Coomilla district, which is almost eight hours drive from Dhaka, the 16-year-old Mumtaz (name changed) saw a ray of hope for the family because Parvin came with a promise of a job in a steel factory in Gulf. But there was a hitch! Parvin wanted to take her elder sister. But standard VIII student, Mumtaz convinced her parents and Parvin that she was the perfect choice for the job.

After initial resentment, her father, a retired textile worker and her mother, a housewife agreed, not knowing that their little daughter’s life would soon become a living hell. In fact, they even shelled out Rs 60,000 (Bangladeshi Taka) to Parvin, out of which Rs 50,000 was taken as a loan and the rest was kept aside to carry out work in the field.

On November 23, 2004 Mumtaz was brought in from Bangladesh to India via Kolkatta along with two other girls. In Kolkatta, they were given a different name and identity and taken to Mumbai, where she met Rekha and Arti, the two other accused, and to Ahmedabad, where she was first forced into prostitution. Says a Child Welfare Committee (CWC) source, “When Mumtaz refused to please a man, the women held Mumtaz’s limbs, while the drunken man raped her.”

Within two days, she was brought back to Mumbai in a battered state. She refused to talk or eat and demanded to talk to her father. Back again she was sent with Arti to Ahmedabad, where she managed to stealthily inform her father on phone about her plight. But she was soon caught and punished.

“You will have to earn money for me now”, said Arti beating her. She was soon sent to Gandhidham, in Gujarat, where the broker’s wife rescued her and gave her protection.

Meanwhile, Mumtaz’s father along with few other people lodged a complaint against Parvin.

Soon she left Gandhidham to go to Bangladesh, but was caught at Borivali station by Rekha. They threatened her with dire consequences, but when she continued with her plea to return to Bangladesh, Rekha said, “You go to Goa and work as waitress in ladies night bar and you will be paid Rs 15,000. With the money you can return home.”

Left with no option, she agreed and arrived in Goa in April this year along with Rekha, where she met Prabha, the sex racket’s Queen Bee. At first, she refused to work, but soon she was warned, “If you don’t work, you won’t be able to go home.” And the first day, she was sent to “work” she was caught by the Pernem police, who took her to Apna Ghar saying that they had found her at the Pernem railway station, and that she had run away from home with her boyfriend.

Ironically, Vishram Borkar, SP, Crime Branch in a press conference soon after they nabbed the three women – Parvin, Arti and Rekha -- had stated that the matter first came to light in mid-April when three boys and a girl checked into a hotel in North Goa. The staff at the hotel suspected something amiss and informed the police. The three boys however managed to escape from the hotel leaving behind the teenager who was taken into custody by the police and then sent to Apna Ghar. From here, she was admitted at Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour, Goa as she was under immense stress.

At Apna Ghar, Parvin came to visit her on the pretext that she is her sister and wanted to take her home. One day, she came with a letter from the Pernem police dated 13 June, 2005 asking the CWC to hand over the girl to Parvin, revealed a CWC member.

But when GT contacted Pernem police, PI Sagar Ekosker informed that he must have sent a letter since Tara Kerkar had come to them claiming that the girl’s parents have come to collect her and hence she wanted a release letter from them. PI Ekosker said, “Since I knew Tara well and the girl’s parents had come to collect her, I had no objections whatsoever of the girl going with her parents. At that time, we didn’t know about the sex racket”.

Once the counsellors at Apna Ghar won the victim’s trust, she revealed everything. Meanwhile, CWC got in touch with the High Commission of Bangladesh, New Delhi, a Delhi based NGO STOP (Stop Trafficking and Oppression of Child and Women) as well as a Bangladeshi NGO, Bangladesh National Women’s Lawyers Association. At that time, the CWC informed Vishram Borkar, SP, Crime Branch that they were in touch with the High Commission of Bangladesh to repatriate the girl. “But he laughed it off saying that High Commission of Bangladesh doesn’t have money to take back the girl,” informed CWC chairperson, Dr Damodar Kunkoliekar.

But Borkar reiterated that no one has contacted him nor there was any document to prove it.

The girl was sent along with Roma Debabrata, President, STOP to Delhi on 24 July and from there she was taken to Bangladesh on 25 July. Confirming this, Debabrata told GT over the phone, “I was contacted by the High Commission of Bangladesh and when I came to know that the child is in a bad shape, as she was abused physically and mentally, I thought that it was in the best interest of the child to send her home to her parents in Bangladesh”. She was permitted to do so by the CWC members and so the minor girl was sent home.
When GT contacted Bangladesh National Women’s Lawyers Association, they said that the girl was safe at home in Bangladesh.

Goa Police: A story of contradictions

As the picture of the girl’s repatriation with a “person” from the Bangladeshi embassy became clearer, the Goa police’s role in the whole episode is getting murkier. Worse still, contradictions galore pour forth from the senior police officials!

ON DJ AGNELO
DYSP CRIME BRANCH Bossuet D’Silva
“DJ Agnelo was getting a hefty sum from Prabha and asked them to leave when something fishy was going on”.

DIG Ujjwal Mishra
“He had sub-let the house to someone who in turn let it out to Prabha. So DJ Agnelo is nowhere in the sex racket.”

SP Vishram Borkar, Crime Branch
“DJ Agnelo’s house is a guest house. And therefore the need to register Prabha and others for staying at the guesthouse didn’t arise. Agnelo is nowhere involved in the case.”


Flesh trader Parvin is wanted in Bangladesh. A case has been filed under the 5 (1) provision of Women and Children Repression Prevention Act 2000 (amended in 2003) for which the proceedings have started in Bangladesh.