Delhi: A local court in Delhi has sentenced Sonu Punjaban 24 years of rigorous imprisonment for running one of Delhi’s biggest sex racket with a deep nexus with gangsters in and around north India. Sonu Punjaban, alias Geeta Arora, was handed the punishment by the Dwarka District Court. Her aide, Sandeep Bedwal, has also been sentenced a 20-year prison time.
The Delhi Police had booked Sonu Punjaban in a case related to forcing a minor girl into prostitution. Meanwhile, Sandeep Bedwal was booked on charges of raping the minor girl. The court has upheld both these charges.
Sonu Punjaban, recently, tried to commit suicide in Delhi’s Tihar Jail by consuming sleeping mills, it was informed by sources. She was taken to a hospital where she recovered following treatment.
Announcing the punishment, the court said Sonu Punjaban “crossed all limits to be called a woman and deserves severest punishment”.
“Sonu Punjaban not only purchased the victim for prostitution but she also brutalised her to make her surrender to her demands. She forcibly administered drugs to the victim so that she could not resist a customer who would sexually exploit her. She applied chilly powder on the breast of the victim and also put it into her mouth in order to create fear in her mind that she should act as per her (Sonu Punjaban’s) wishes, otherwise be ready to face brutality. Sonu Punjaban beat the victim when she resisted to follow her commands,” the court said in its order.
Who is Sonu Punjaban?
Sonu Punjaban is said to be the most infamous lady sex racketeer in Delhi. Reports suggest that she began gaining notoriety across North India from a very young age and had ties with gangsters, most of whom werer killed in encounters after meeting her. She is also said to have been in relationship with two of them.
A 2019 report in a leading daily says Sonu Punjaban ran one of the biggest sex rackets in the Delhi-NCR with her clients including “high-profile businessmen and her employees including aspiring models and actresses”.
Her hitmen were spread across north India.
“She had married gangster Hemant Sonu and took Sonu from his name after he was killed in an encounter. Sonu changed tracks in life after she fell in love with gangster Vijay Singh, a close aide of gangster Shri Prakash Shukla. Singh was gunned down by UP’s STF in Garh Mukteshwar in 2003 soon after they got married. Her next boyfriend, Deepak, was shot down as well in Assam. Deepak’s brother, Hemant Sonu, gave her a helping hand and stood by her. Soon, they got married. Hemant got involved in a high-profile double murder case that got cops on his trail. In March 2006, Hemant was killed by Special Cell on the Delhi-Gurugram border,” the leading daily had said in its report.
But, 2017 was not the maiden time Sonu Punjaban got arrested by the police.
In 2014, a Delhi court acquitted Sonu Punjaban, who was accused of running an organised sex racket and was charged under strict provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). Additional Sessions Judge Gulshan Kumar acquitted Sonu Punjaban owing to lack of evidence against her.
The Case
The Dwarka Court sentenced Punjaban to two jail terms of 14 years for offences under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act and 10 years for other offences under the Indian Penal Code, including trading of a minor girl for prostitution and criminal conspiracy.
Bedwal was sentenced to 10 years for kidnapping, kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage, procuration of minor girl, selling a minor girl for prostitution, criminal conspiracy of IPC and another 10 years for offences under section 376 (rape) of IPC.
The court also imposed fines of Rs 64,000 and Rs 65,000 on Punjaban and Bedwal, respectively.
Deputy commissioner of police (crime) Bhisham Singh, who has been on the probe team ever since the case was transferred to the crime branch in 2017, said the court’s judgment vindicated the saying that “justice can be delayed but not denied”.
“I am happy because we as a police team could help the victim get her due justice. She was less than 13 years when she was kidnapped,” said DCP Singh.
PNN/Agencies