The Tribune, January 8, 2005

Neighbour booked for attempt to sell girl
Kulwinder Sandhu
Tribune News Service

Karnal, January 7
A case of selling a 16-year-old teenager girl has come to light at Karnal, the FIR of which was registered by the police against her neighbour woman and two of her associates after preliminary investigation last evening. However, the police was yet to arrest the alleged criminals when the report was last written. Revealing this to The Tribune, the investigation officer, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Pawan Kumar, said the teenaged girl Jyoti, daughter of Kulwant Singh of Ram Nagar, was taken to the local market by her neighbour Ramesh Devi on the pretext of shopping on the evening of December 29.

Later, the woman took Jyoti to the Atal Park in Sector-9 where two unidentified persons were already waiting for them in a Maruti car. The woman and the girl sat together in the car so that they could be dropped at their residence in Ram Nagar. However, on the way, Ramesh Devi took Rs 1,000 from these two persons in the name of shopping and got down from the car, saying that she was going to the market and would get late.

She asked Jyoti to go along with them to the house. However, the girl refused to go along with the strangers alone but the woman convinced her that they were well known to her. Believing her neighbourer, she agreed upon to go with them alone. Meanwhile, the driver stopped the car in front of the local vegetable market and got out of the car to purchase something. The other man sitting with her in the car started molesting her. Realising bad intentions of the person, Jyoti cried for help and managed to escape. She immediately rushed to a nearby shop for help. The shopkeeper, with the help of assistants, tried to nab the alleged culprits but they fled away from the spot. Later, the shop owner took Jyoti to her home. Her family members later brought the matter to the notice of the police.

The investigation officer conducted a preliminary inquiry into the incident after recording the statements of the victim and her family members. After the investigation into the incident a prima facie case was established and accordingly an FIR was registered against Ramesh Devi and her two accomplices under Sections 363, 366, 342, 354, 372 and 120B of the IPC last evening.