The Bombay High Court has dismissed the appeal of a 35-year-old woman convicted in 2014 for trafficking a teenager.
A single bench of Justice Sadhana Jadhav, hearing a criminal appeal filed by Amina alias Saniya Shakil Shaikh, a labourer from Solapur, said “prosecution has proved the guilt beyond reasonable doubt”.
The survivor, a Class VII student in Urdu high school, lived in the same area as Amina and used to work in a factory on daily wages. She confided in Amina that her wages of ₹100 after working for 12 hours was meagre compared to the workload. Amina offered her a job that would pay ₹500 an hour and lured her to move to Mumbai, where she was forced into prostitution.
On September 28, 2011 the girl left her parents’ house in Solapur and moved to Mumbai with a man who handed her over to a brothel keeper. Meanwhile, the girl’s mother had filed a missing complaint to look for her daughter. Scared that she would get caught, Amina sent the victim back to Solapur, but was arrested soon after.
During the trial, the survivor said she was given a tablet, which would make her giddy, at 12 noon everyday and then handed over to a man. She was paid ₹500/600 every week for this.
Amina was convicted under Sections 363 (punishment for kidnapping), 366A (procuration of minor girl) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act. She was sentenced for seven years and levied with a fine of ₹10,000 on October 29, 2014.
Dismissing Amina’s appeal, the Bench said, “The appellant [Amina] used the services of minor girl to earn her own living. The victim was a minor and had fallen prey to the offer made by the appellant. It appears that this is a case of human trafficking. It was the duty of the investigating officer to take the investigation to it’s logical end and only then several young vulnerable girls could be saved from such people like the appellant.”
