On Tuesday (30th January), three Rohingya men were sentenced to ten years of rigorous imprisonment for trafficking two Rohingya women from Bangladesh to Nuh, Haryana in 2021, and raping them. The three convicts have been identified as Mohammad Ayas, Hafeez Ahmed, and Mohammad Yunus.
According to Nuh police, two women in their early 20s illegally sneaked into India from Bangladesh by giving Rs 25,000 to a person. The two women paid the money to a suspect the police have not identified yet. The women were taken to Delhi via Mizoram and Kolkata by the now-convicted persons Mohammad Ayas, Hafeez Ahmed, and Mohammad Yunus. According to the police, the convicted trio were staying in Nuh’s Rohingya refugee camp at the time.
Haryana Police said that the convicted had involvement in trafficking vulnerable Rohingya women into Jammu and Kashmir via Bangladesh and then arranging their marriages for money.
While Ayas, Hafeez and Yunus were trafficking women and arranging their marriage for money, in this case, they raped the two Rohingya women in a Rohingya refugee camp in Nuh.
On Tuesday, the additional district and session judge in Nuh, Ajay K Verma convicted the three Rohingya men of trafficking and raping two Rohingya women. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 each. In case of non-payment, the convicts will face an additional punishment of one year in jail.
The Nuh police stated that the convicts approached the two women’s brother at a Rohingya refugee camp in September 2021 in Hyderabad, Telangana, promising to release his sisters for Rs 15,000 each. Authorities said that despite the man’s payment of Rs 30,000, the perpetrators declined to release the women. In September 2021, the women were taken to Malab village in Nuh and sold to a woman in Anantnag, Kashmir, for Rs 70,000 each.
Meanwhile, Narender Bijarniya, superintendent of police in Nuh said that despite several raids conducted in various locations, the woman from Anantnag has not been arrested. “The man who took Rs 25,000 from the women to cross the border has not been identified,” SP Bijarniya said.
The victim’s brother then approached the Child Welfare Committee (CWC). Based on the information, the CWC launched a raid in Malab village and rescued the women from a hutment in a Rohingya camp in Shahpur Nangli in Nuh district. Medical examinations confirmed that the women were raped and tortured.
Acting on the women’s complaint, the Nuh police filed an FIR against the three Rohingya men in November 2021 under Indian Penal Code sections 370 (human trafficking), 370A (sexual exploitation of a trafficked minor), 342 (wrongful confinement), 120 B (conspiracy), 34 (common intention), and 506 (criminal intimidation).
The police then recorded the statements of the two women. Meanwhile, the medical examinations confirmed that the women were raped and tortured. Consequently, the police added sections 6 and 8 of the Pocso (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act to the FIR. At the time, investigators thought the victims were minors.
In January 2022, an age determination test was conducted on the two women and their ages were determined to be between 19-20 and 20-22 respectively. Following this, the sections of the Pocso Act were removed and sections 376 (rape) and 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) were added.
Public Prosecutor Pratap Singh said that the criminals were apprehended from the refugee camp in December 2021 after CWC received information about the two Bangladeshi women trafficked. “All three had confessed to the crime and were sent to judicial custody,” Singh said.
