Two factory owners, from whose premises 33 child labourers were allegedly rescued, have been denied anticipatory bail by a special court which said the aspect of human trafficking is to be probed and it is a "serious" matter as kids were forced to work from dawn to dusk without any respite.
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.
"No doubt the statements of all the child victims, who were rescued from the factories of the applicants have been recorded, but considering the fact that 20 and 13 of the minor children were kept in the factory of the accused/applicants (Deepak and Rohit) who were all forced to do child labour, is a matter of serious concern, where they were forced to work from dawn to dusk without any sort of respite," it said.
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.
"Whereas in this case, the true implications of the human trafficking involved in the present case is to be worked out, that is to find out as to how and from whom the applicants had recruited such large number of child victims in the factories," it said.
The court said that it appeared that the cops have "already favoured" Deepak and Rohit as despite rescuing of 20 and 13 children respectively from their factory, they were still roaming at large and that the police authorities have been "too kind" to them.
"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.
Out of those 45, 20 children were rescued from Deepak's factory, 13 minors were recovered from Rohit's premises and an FIR was registered by the police.
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.
