Sex racket: Uzbek woman gets 1-yr jail for evading trial

A 33-year-old Uzbek woman, accused of running a sex racket in the capital, has been sent to jail for one year by a city court for evading trial for over three years.
The court, however, acquitted her of charges of forcing two other women, also from Uzbekistan, into prostitution in 2013, as the alleged victims were not examined.
According to the prosecution, Palvanova Dilfuza has been living in India since 2010 when she married an Indian man.
When her husband left her, she indulged in flesh trade to earn a living, it alleged, adding that she was arrested on June 18, 2013 on the complaint of two other Uzbek women on charges of wrongful confinement, gangrape, threat and assault.

Additional Sessions Judge Sanjiv Jain, however, acquitted her of the offences saying the allegations against her could not be proved as the two women had left India without intimating the court and summons could not be served to them even through the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Dilfuza was released on bail on May 8, 2014, after which she absconded from the proceedings and was declared a proclaimed offender on March 24 this year. She was re-arrested on October 23, the police said.

"It is however proved that the accused absented from the proceedings during the trial and also left the given address. ...Prosecution has thus proved that accused Palvanova Dilfuza failed to appear in this court despite the issuance of Non Bailable Warrants against her on November 25, 2016 and December 22, 2016 whereby she was declared as Proclaimed Offender," the court said.

The court, while deciding the case, considered that she has been waiting for completion of trial in another case under the Immoral Traffic Prevention (ITP) after which she intends to return to her country.
The alleged victims had come to India in January 2013 on tourist visa and met Dilfuza at a restaurant and then went to her place, the prosecution said.
It alleged they were confined, made to consume sedative-laced drinks and were raped by several men for nearly five months. Their passports were also snatched.
However, they managed to escape and met two men who took them to Safdarjung Hospital here after they complained of pain in abdomen.

A case was registered against Dilfuza under sections 376D (gangrape), 323(voluntarily causing hurt), 341(wrongful confinement) and 506 (criminal intimadation) of the IPC and Section 5 () of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) (ITP) Act.