Delhi Police Falsely Charge NE Girls With Flesh Trade in FB Post

Posted on October 14, 2016 0 Comments203

Around 7:15 pm on 4 October 2016, police from the Gurugram Sector 29
police station raided a spa and massage parlour in the locality. The
next evening, around the same time, the Delhi police-run Facebook page
‘Delhi Police for Northeast Folks’ was updated with a post headlined “12
NE girls arrested by the police for flesh trade (prostitution) at
Gurgaon city”.

The update posted by nodal officer for people from
the northeast, IGP Robin Hibu, also claimed that the Gurugram Sector 29
police had busted the largest ever prostitution ring. It also included
details of the places the 12 girls belonged to – ‘Unfortunately, all of
them are from different NE state’s towns of Churachanpur, Chandel,
Imphal, Aizwal, Lunglai, Guwahati and Darjeeling’. The statement also
said that illegal activities were being carried out in the guise of spas
and massage parlours. Many more women from the region involved in the
flesh trade lived in rented houses in Munirka, Mahipalpur and Kotla
Mubarakpur in Delhi and would be arrested soon, the statement added.

No Evidence of Flesh Trade

That particular Facebook post got more than a thousand likes
and was shared more than 200 times. It also saw some of the most
parochial and chauvinistic comments on women from the north-east in
general and the sensitive issue in particular that actually needs
careful handling. This is ironic, given that the Facebook page was
created to prevent northeast people from getting harassed and it is
perhaps for this reason that such a nodal officer was even appointed.

Soon
the news – that ‘12 NE girls were arrested by police for flesh trade’ –
went viral on social media, only to be picked up by the electronic and
print media later. Feeding on the existing stereotypical notions against
the northeast and its people, the news spread across the length and the
breadth of the country.

Things took a different turn when on 10
October 2016, the Northeast Support Centre & Helpline (NESCH) team
met the Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Deepak Saharan at his
office in Gurugram, Haryana.

“The DCP said that 25 people were arrested, out of which 15 are females
and only four are from northeast India. No evidence of their involvement
in the flesh trade has been found. “

Later, when contacted, the DCP denied having said that 12 women from the
northeast had been arrested. He had, the DCP said, only given a list of
the names of those arrested to the concerned Delhi police nodal officer
for the northeast. “I have never said anything like that. You should
ask the concerned nodal officer about the comment,” he said.

Read at www.thequint.com

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