Siblings get 7-yr jail for selling minors for prostitution

Additional Sessions Judge Gurdeep Singh handed down seven-year jail term to Veena and her brother Ashok for running a racket of kidnapping minor girls and raising them and putting them into prostitution after a particular age.

"The human trafficking of girl child is the most abominable of the crimes. The traffickers, for their small monetary gains, sell the human body, thereby making such a person dead in body as well as in soul," the court said.

"The traffickers involve small children in such activity which they are not even aware of at tender age. It not only causes a human life untold misery but also leaves the parents of such children in deep hurt. The parents throughout their life search for their beloved."

Veena and Ashok were arrested in 2010 after the father of a minor girl lodged her missing report. He cast suspicion on his neighbours Bimla and Mukesh who were arrested but later discharged by the court.

The police, however, found out that after passing through many hands, the minor girl was finally sold to Veena and Ashok in a village in Rajasthan for Rs 20,000.

Both Veena and Ashok are also facing a separate case of kidnapping minor girls.

The court has also slapped a fine of Rs 20,000 on them.