New Delhi: A Delhi court Wednesday sentenced sex racketeer Geeta Arora alias Sonu Punjaban to 24 years rigorous imprisonment. Geeta Arora’s associate Sandeep Bedwal was also handed a sentence of 20 years. Both were found guilty in a case of kidnapping and prostitution of a minor girl.
Additional Session Judge Pritam Singh of Dwarka court had convicted them in the case on July 17. He said that the prosecution has succeeded in proving the charges against the two ‘beyond reasonable doubt’.
The 12-year-old victim was kidnapped September 11, 2009 by Bedwal. She was sold and re-sold to a score of people, including Sonu Punjaban, for the purpose of prostitution.
According to the prosecution, ‘Sonu Punjaban’ used to administer drugs into the body of the victim. This was done so that the vicitim became ‘more suitable for prostitution’. She used to charge Rs 1,500 from each customer, sometimes even more.
Five years after the case was registered, the victim came to the police station to record her statement. During the recording of her statement she claimed that she was kidnapped by Bedwal after he confessed his love to her.
The victim divulged that he took her to the house of ‘Seema Aunty’ on the pretext of marriage and raped her. From there, the chain of selling and re-selling her for flesh trade began.
The minor girl was then sold four times by different people and she eventually ended up with Sonu Punjaban. The latter after using her for prostitution, sold her to three men. Following this, one of the men named Satpal married her.
“February 7, 2014, the victim left the house of Satpal and February 9, came to the Najafgarh police station. As per her statement, an FIR was registered,” the court said. Sonu Punjaban was then arrested in December 2017 and the charge sheet was filed in March 2018.
Sonu was convicted for commission of offences such as procuration of minor, slavery, selling and buying minor for prostitution. The other charges on which she was booked were poisoning, wrongful confinement and criminal conspiracy.
Bedwal was convicted for kidnapping, procuration of minor, slavery, Rape, Victim selling minor for prostitution, rape and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
It should be stated here that four days back, Sonu had attempted suicide in Tihar jail where she had been lodged. However, before anything drastic happened she was rushed to the hospital. Doctors declared out of danger after 24 hours.
