Jessore Juvenile Development Centre inmate Sonu claims he was trafficked from Delhi

An inmate of Jessore Juvenile Development Centre, ‘Sonu’, has claimed that he is the same child who went missing from India’s New Delhi six years ago.

Assistant Director of the centre Mohammad Shahabuddin said Sonu had been frequently asking when he could go back home.

“I have spoken to my parents. I want to go back home,” he said.

Sonu said a woman named ‘Rahima’ trafficked him to Barguna from New Delhi.

“She used to make me work and beat me,” he said.

Shahabuddin told bdnews24.com that a court in Barguna on Dec 22 last year sent Sonu to the development centre.

Quoting court documents, he said Rahima, wife of ‘Sirajul’ of Borguna’s Gaurmardan village, and ‘Aklima’, wife of the same village’s ‘Jahangir’, brought the boy from Delhi in 2010.

“Rahima introduced the boy to her neighbour as the son of her sister. But as Sonu grew up, she made him do all the household chores, which made the neighbours suspicious. At that time one of her neighbours, Jamaluddin, started making inquiries about Sonu.”

Jamaluddin then contacted Binoykrishna Mallik, executive director of Rights, an organisation which works against trafficking.

Binoykrishna told bdnews24.com that, unable to bear the tortures inflicted on him by Rahima’s family, Sonu ultimately fled from there and took shelter at Jamaluddin’s place.

At the time, Sonu revealed that he had been trafficked.

But when Jamaluddin started to make further inquiries, Rahima’s family implicated him in a false case.

Jamal said he then contacted the Human Rights Commission in Dhaka. The rights body then started looking for Sonu’s family by contacting the Indian High Commission.

Based on Sonu’s narratives, Binoykrishna said his father Mehboob and mother Mumtaz were located at New Delhi’s 10 Dilshan Garden area.

Rights then contacted India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

First Secretary of the Indian High Commission Ramakanta Gupta on Wednesday spoke to Sonu at the Jessore Juvenile Development Centre.

“We are making inquiries about Sonu’s parents,” he told bdnews24.com.