10-year-old boy sold to Pilibhit farmer, rescued

PILIBHIT: A 10-year-old Delhi boy, who was allegedly sold to a Pilibhit farmer by a woman of his neighbourhood one and a half months ago, is rescued by two Bisalpur residents.
The boy was handed over to the child helpline for legal proceedings under official custody, and the matter was referred to police on Sunday afternoon.
According to the boy, the farmer had kept him in captivity and used to torture him physically.“He would keep me hungry and make me perform household jobs.”
On Saturday afternoon, when the farmer had gone out for some work and his wife was sleeping, the boy escaped to Bisalpur in a tractor. However, the tractor driver handed him over to police near Bisalpur sugar mill, said the boy.
Before police could drop him at bus stand to take a bus to Delhi on Saturday evening, he was rescued by two people of a food corner, said the boy.
Owners of the food corner Riasat Mansoori and Ashraf Beg said, “We suspected that the boy could again be victimised during his journey to Delhi. So, we gave him shelter and informed mediapersons and his mother. Later, the matter was referred to child helpline.”
The boy told mediapersons that after he was sold to Bhajan Singh, alias, Singhada Singh, of Chathia Hilgi village, he was shifted from Delhi to the buyer’s farm house, where he was beaten up, abused and had been kept hungry. He was given cleaning and sweeping job at the farm house and he also used to look after Singh’s cattle.
Meanwhile, boy’s mother Zeenat Khan, alias, Jannat, a resident of Delhi’s Sahibabad, reached Pilibhit on Sunday afternoon. In her complaint at Bilsdnda police station here, Khan said she had also lodged a complaint with Sahibabad police after his son went missing.
District coordinator of child helpline (CHL) Nirbhan Singh told TOI: “The boy is under the official custody of CHL. An FIR will be lodged on Monday following the order of the child welfare committee (CWC).”
Station house officer (SHO) of Bilsanda police station JP Singh said as soon as he received the CWC’s complaint, an FIR would be registered under appropriate sections.
As no FIR was lodged till Monday evening, district magistrate Vaibhav Shrivastav told TOI, “I will ensure that immediate police action is taken against the accused as the matter is connected with child trafficking, bonded labour and physical torture of a minor boy”.