New Delhi, Mar 22 (PTI) The Delhi High Court has denied bail to a woman, accused of trafficking a minor tribal girl, saying it was unfortunate that an innocent girl of tender age was subject to heinous crimes and was severely abused, exploited and tortured by several people.

Justice Chandra Dhari Singh said keeping in view the facts of the case, contents of the FIR and the gravity of offences, the court was not inclined to grant the relief of bail to the accused woman Poonam.

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"The offences under sections 370 and 376 of the IPC are grave and serious in nature and have adverse social implications. The petitioner has been charged for trafficking a minor girl which is in itself a heinous offence," the court said.

"The complainant is a tribal girl who was brought to Delhi from Jharkhand in search of work when she was merely 14 years of age. It is unfortunate that an innocent girl of tender age was subjected to such heinous crimes as alleged in her complaint and has been severely abused, exploited and tortured by several people accused in the FIR," it added.

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The girl had filed a plea stating that she was from the Adivasi community and was brought to Delhi from Jharkhand on promise of work and that she was engaged as a house maid with accused Anand and Chintamani, who were running a placement office.

The complaint said that after one year of work, she was forcefully brought as a maid to Anand's house. However, whenever she used to demand her salary, she was denied payment and instead tortured.

She alleged that Anand raped her several times while she was living in his house and whenever she told this to Chintamani, she too used to beat her and threatened her not to tell anyone about it.

She said Anand and Chintamani then sent her to accused Poonam in Uttar Pradesh and then to Haryana.

It was also alleged that another accused used to rape her and treat her like a slave. She was also told she was purchased from Poonam for Rs 2 lakh.

When the girl got an opportunity, she ran away from the house of one of the accused and came to Delhi where she got an FIR registered against all the accused.

When the woman got to know about the FIR, she surrendered before the court and was sent to judicial custody in March 2021.

The FIR was lodged in 2019 under sections 370 (buying or disposing of any person as a slave), 376D (intercourse by any member of the management or staff of a hospital with any woman in that hospital), 376(2)(n) (repeatedly raping same woman), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) under the IPC.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)