Special Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal denied the relief to the two accused in separate cases of child labour and bonded labour, saying it has to be found out as to how and from whom the factory owners had allegedly recruited such a large number of child victims here.
The court dismissed the anticipatory bail pleas of Deepak Sahni and Rohit Sahni, from whose petroleum jelly factories 20 and 13 child labourers respectively were allegedly rescued by an NGO.
Rejecting the contention of the accused that factory owners in other such have already been granted bail, the court said the cases of Deepak and Rohit are different from others as in those matters, the factory owners were released almost after spending 15 days in custody.
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"Considering the overall circumstances, custodial
interrogation of the applicant would be required. As a consequence no ground for anticipatory bail is made out at this stage. Applications are dismissed," the judge said.
According to the prosecution, on October 26, the SDM of Kotwali area in Central Delhi along with NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan, conducted several raids in the industrial area of Shehzada Bagh here and rescued 45 children, who were working as bonded labourers.
It was also alleged that the children were forced to work from 9 AM to 1 AM the next day.
The FIR was lodged for the alleged offences of buying or disposing of any person as a slave, unlawful compulsory labour under the IPC and under various provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, Child Labour Act, Bonded Labour Act.
The police had opposed their anticipatory bail plea on the ground that the children were forced to work for such long hours without any respite the provisions invoked against them attracts a minimum of 14 years jail term.