Bhubaneswar: Police here in Bhubaneswar have lunched an operation to trace the clients of the 16-year-old sexual assault victim from Jharkhand after her blood tests revealed that she is HIV positive.
The minor victim was apparently trafficked into the sex racket which was operating from Jagnyaseni Niwas, a residential building in Laxmisagar area of the city. The matter came to light after she was found writhing in pain on the roadside in the Ashok Nagar area of the city and got herself admitted to Capital Hospital on October 16. During treatment, the doctors found out that the girl had a history of sexual assault and was suffering from psychic disorders. She had sustained serious injuries on her private parts.
According to sources, the girl was produced before the Child Welfare Committee for counselling after testing positive for HIV. She informed about at least 27 clients, who regularly visited her at the brothel. She also mentioned that high-end cars were parked daily at the complex, with affluent clients—including political leaders, officers, students, and businessmen—paying large sums for services.
These revelations have put police in a spot and efforts are on to crackdown those who visited the complex and might have contracted the disease.
So far, four individuals have been arrested in the suspected case of sexual assault, which sent shockwaves across Bhubaneswar. They are Abinash Muduli, a 28-year-old from Nayagarh who dropped the minor girl at the Capital Hospital after raping her, two pimps – Manju Sethi (47) and Mamata Sahu (42)- and Sanjib Kumar Das (54), owner of the house where the girl was reportedly kept.
Two separate cases under Section 65(1) of BNS and section 6 of the POCSO Act have also been registered at Laxmisagar and Capital police stations, respectively. The house owner and two women pimps have been booked for running the sex racket (human trafficking), while a case of sexual assault has been registered against the youth for sexually assaulting the minor girl.
