Tag: trafficking

Arunachal’s Exclusionist Policy Towards Chakmas Has Led to Rampant Trafficking of Their Children

Without citizenship rights and even residence certificates, the community has no option but to take their chances with possibly fraudulent employers, hoping their children will not be enslaved.

Diyun Circle (Arunachal Pradesh): Since 2015 at least, northeast India has been a hub of human trafficking, according to figures available with the National Crime Records Bureau. In 2015, Assam alone accounted for 22% of all human trafficking cases in India, and in subsequent years, the records have shown almost the same percentage.

The high number of trafficking cases in the region can be attributed to a lack of job opportunities. Young people are lured by the prospect of work elsewhere, only to be trapped into sexual, domestic or construction slavery. Significantly, Arunachal Pradesh, an economically well off state with a low population, requires a large number of workers for both construction and domestic work. This means that there is much trafficking from Assam to Arunachal Pradesh.

For the past eight years, since 2014, I have been investigating cases of missing children and human trafficking in Assam, publishing my findings in newspapers and news organisations. Over these years, I learned that while many trafficking cases are reported, most of them are not, meaning that those who go missing are lost forever, as if they had never existed. 

Recently, when I followed the case of a missing girl from Assam who was taken to Arunachal Pradesh, I came across a newspaper advertisement about a Chakma girl from the Changlang district in Arunachal Pradesh who had disappeared. When I looked into the case, I learned she had been trafficked to Itanagar to work as domestic help.

Intrigued, I spoke to student leaders from the Chakma community. This led to a startling revelation: the trafficking of Chakma children in Arunachal Pradesh is rampant. And because the Chakma community has no citizenship rights and is one of the most backward communities in the state, these cases go largely unreported.

Battle for survival

A recent statement by Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on relocating the Chakma refugees of his state to other parts of India has created enormous tension within the community. 

The Chakmas, a Buddhist ethnic group with a rich cultural heritage, originally came from the Chittagong Hill Tracts and entered India through Tripura and Mizoram in 1964 when the erstwhile East Pakistan government commissioned the Kaptai Dam over the river Karnaphuli, leaving them displaced. 

The community had also faced religious persecution by the then Pakistani authorities due to its demand for the region it occupied to remain part of India after partition. 

Also read | In Illustrations: The Story of the Chakmas

In 1964, when the Chakma refugees displaced by the dam entered India, the Indian government settled a group of them in the Tirap valley of the then North East Frontier Agency (NEFA), which today is called Arunachal Pradesh. 

Since Arunachal Pradesh received statehood in 1987, the Chakmas have been subjected to regular harassment by the local tribes. Though the Indian government in 1972 decided to grant them citizenship and the Supreme Court of India in 2015 directed the state government to provide them with citizenship rights, the state of Arunachal Pradesh has ignored all such orders.

Given that the Chakma community has no rights in India, the police have no records of any cases related to the trafficking of Chakma children. To learn more about the situation, therefore, I travelled to Diyon Circle in Chalanglang district, where I found that the less than one lakh Chakmas have seen thousands of their children being trafficked in recent times. 

In Changlang, Namsai and Papum Pare districts of Arunachal Pradesh, there are long lists of missing children from the Chakma community. Almost every household in the villages of Aranyapur, Udaipur, Dharmapur, Mudoidweep and Dumpani in the Diyon Circle of Changlang district has suffered the loss of children to human trafficking. While some of these children were eventually found and rescued from the brutality of slavery and abuse, many remain missing.

About a year ago, 13-year-old Ritu Chakma from No. 2 Jyotipur village went to Namsai, her parents having been promised that she would have a better life. Instead she was taken to an unknown place where her captor sexually abused her every night. She was rescued by the police and the Child Welfare Centre after a complaint made by an unidentified person and is now back at home. 

Ritu Chakma. Photo: Farhana Ahmed/The Wire

Her father, Arun Kumar Chakma, a landless, daily wage worker, said, “I had no idea of the grim reality of human trafficking. I sent my daughter to Namsai with a person known to me who promised he would get her work. I have six children and I cannot sustain them on my daily wages. I am also a Chakma in Arunachal Pradesh.”

Deprived of citizenship rights, Arun Kumar Chakma and his family have no access to Public Distribution System rations, the Atal Amrit Abhiyan healthcare scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana housing scheme and even the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee. Chakma villages are still deprived of electricity and water supply and no one from the Chakma community in Arunachal Pradesh can be a member of a gaon panchayat (village council) or vote in any election. 

Adding to the plight of the Chakmas in Changlang district is the river Dihing, which floods every year, causing massive erosion. Since 1971, thousands of Chakma people from the villages of Moitripur, Gautampur, Shantipur, Dumpani, Udaipur, Mudoidweep and Aranyapur have been displaced by the erosion caused by the Dihing.

In Aranyapur village, there is only one well for 200 households and women walk five to 10 km daily just to fetch water. In 1994, the state’s apathy towards the Chakmas became evident when a malaria epidemic devastated the area, taking the lives of at least one person per household on an average.  

On a summer evening in July 2021, 12-year-old Bapu Chakma of Aranyapur village was handed by his parents to one Gopal Chakma, who promised them that the boy would earn well and be taken care of. A few days later, Bapu was found dead in mysterious circumstances. His death was not reported to his family. His parents only learned of it through the anti-trafficking unit of the Arunachal Pradesh Chakma Students Union (APCSU).

Handra Chakma also went missing at the age of 12. He should now be 22 years old if he is still alive. His poor, disabled and displaced parents are still in their small hut in Aranyapur, waiting for news of their son.

Handra’s mother with his photo. Photo: Farhana Ahmed/The Wire

Worsening conditions

When he was 15 years old, Purna Kumar Chakma, now 78 years old, accompanied a group of 20 to 25 families leaving the Chittagong Hill Tracts on the night of April 13, 1964, following the inundation of their villages by the Kaptai dam. 

“We entered India through the Tripura border and after a month’s time moved to NEFA by train from Karimganj in Assam,” he recalled. The then Assistant Political Officer to NEFA, U. Chakma, consulted the local bodies and traditional chiefs about giving shelter to the refugees and with their consent settled them in Changlang district which was almost unpopulated and full of dense forests at that time. 

“We received rations as refugees till 1967, when the Arunachal Pradesh government granted us settlements,” said Purna Kumar.

From the early 1980s onwards, however, the Chakmas became a target for the locals when the aftershocks of the Assam Movement  of 1979-85 reached Arunachal Pradesh. 

“As a result of the Assam Movement, the All Arunachal Pradesh Students Union started demanding the expulsion of Chakmas from the state, which led to attacks on Chakma students in Miao,” said Subimal Chakma, president of the Committee for Citizenship Rights of Chakma and Hajong Community of Arunachal Pradesh. 

There was major violence against the Chakmas in 1994, prompting their leaders to seek citizenship grants through judicial intervention. The Supreme Court of India in its verdict on January 9, 1996, asked the Arunachal Pradesh government to enrol the Chakmas who had entered India between 1964 and 1967 on the electoral rolls. Following this order, 4,637 Chakmas were given voting rights. In 2015, the apex court asked the state government to provide citizenship rights to the Chakmas in Arunachal Pradesh. But, according to Subimal, the Arunachal government has not complied with the court order. Though the community wishes to bring this to the notice of the apex court, a lack of funds and COVID restrictions have prevented them from doing so even now.

At present, there are approximately 60,000 Chakma people in the districts of Changlang, Namsai and Papum Pare in Arunachal Pradesh. Drisya Muni Chakma, president of the APCSU, said, “The situation is very grim for our community in Arunachal Pradesh. We are suffering because of the present policies by the state.” 

With only a few of the new generation Chakmas being given the right to vote, the state government is strategically depriving the community of voting rights, Drisya Muni said.  Though they are eligible for Aadhaar numbers, their Residential Permission Certificates (RPC) have been the only useful document for educational purposes and jobs in the Central services. But even this lifesaving RPC was suspended by the Arunachal Pradesh government on July 31, 2022, after a call for an agitation by the All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union if the issue of RPCs to Chakmas and Hajongs was not stopped. 

Without their RPCs, Chakma youth from Arunachal Pradesh will not be able to join the Indian Army and Central forces, leading to even higher unemployment for the community.  This in turn will boost the human trafficking trade. Trafficked Chakma children have been engaged as forced labourers and sex slaves in various places. They are also used as drug peddlers and are forced to participate in other criminal activities.

Creating awareness

Having been vulnerable to trafficking for some decades now, some new generation Chakma students are trying to create awareness among their community. The APCSU has been surveying the trafficking cases of Chakma children from 2016 onwards. This has led to the rescue of many trafficked children. Significantly, the traffickers are Chakma people too. Unemployed, they traffic children from their villages to earn their living, giving false addresses to the parents of the trafficked children to misguide them. A 12-year-old girl who was trafficked to Itanagar from Mudoidweep village was recently rescued by the APCSU after it heard reports that she was being sexually abused. She is now living with her parents and has a one-year-old son whose father’s name she does not know. 

According to the APCSU, 27 Chakma children went missing from villages in Dyun Circle in 2021. The eight-year-old daughter of Debojyoti Chakma, who was trafficked by one Dilip Kumar Chakma to Naharlagun, and a nine-year-old child from Mudoiweep, who was trafficked by one Sundur Kumar Chakma to Itanagar in 2021, were rescued earlier this year by the APCSU. A 15-year-old Chakma girl trafficked for immoral activities and four Chakma youth from Changlang trafficked to Delhi NCR to work as domestic help and kept in captivity were also brought back home by the APCSU this year.

Even when the APCSU knows the names of the traffickers and reports them to the police, no action is ever taken. Since the community does not have even basic citizenship rights, the police are under no obligation to act against the traffickers.

The Chakmas in Arunachal Pradesh have been reduced to a primitive state of life. Like all stateless people, they are vulnerable to various external threats including human trafficking. To save their children from traffickers and improve their condition, the Chakmas should be granted all their rights as Indian citizens. 

Farhana Ahmed is a journalist, documentary filmmaker and social activist based in North Lakhimpur, Assam. She can be reached at farhana.ahmed777@gmail.com and is @Farhana77177 on Twitter.

Mo Farah Shows How Identifying Trafficking Cases Often Singularly Depends on Disclosure

We have known for years that disclosure is gradual and incremental. A child needs to feel safe and secure to disclose abuse and exploitation.

Sir Mo Farah recently revealed that he was trafficked into the UK at the age of nine for domestic servitude. In a BBC documentary, the long-distance runner said it took him three decades to publicly discuss what happened to him, partly because he wanted to block it out, and is only now piecing it together.

Farah’s experience shows how identifying trafficking cases is often dependent on disclosure – a person coming forward with their own story. But the disclosure of human trafficking, especially when it involves children or young people, takes time.

In my own research I have examined case files, interviewed and spoken with young people and adults who have experienced trafficking. Identifying trafficking can be like building a jigsaw – a picture only emerges once the final pieces are added. In many cases, disclosure is the first step to getting protection and support, and for young people having someone to help them navigate the process is important.

We have known for years that disclosure is gradual and incremental. As a 2009 report commissioned by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children shows, identifying trafficking can be hindered by silence. Solicitors, police, social workers, youth workers and other health and education professionals noted that children and young people found it difficult to disclose information about their experiences, sometimes having been told not to articulate what had happened to them or being afraid of the consequences.

Seemingly in contrast with this, these same practitioners themselves found it difficult to identify cases, sometimes not believing what they heard from the young people. These two elements and other complex circumstances make it incredibly difficult for cases to be identified.

Disclosure of any form of child abuse can be influenced by the types and levels of abuse experienced. If a child has experienced greater than four types of trauma or maltreatment in a one year period, this is known as “polyvictmisation”. This describes the experience of many young people who have been trafficked, including Farah. According to the documentary, he was arriving at school unkempt, showing signs of neglect. He was also forced to work behind closed doors looking after children, cleaning, doing chores and generally being exploited.

Disclosure can be hampered by the control traffickers hold over young people, enforced through physical violence or less visible forms of coercion. At the age of nine, Farah would not have had any meaningful say in his trafficking and was told not to say anything to anyone about his circumstances. The burden of keeping that secret would have been immeasurable. But like many, Farah ultimately reached a point where he needed to tell someone.

Deciding to disclose

Knowing who to turn to to reveal abuse is not straightforward. A 2013 report on the childhood experiences of abuse of 60 young men and women found that 90% of these young people had negative experiences of disclosure, where the person they confided in responded poorly. This report also found that young people disclosed for a variety of reasons, including not being able to cope with the abuse any longer, the abuse getting worse and wanting to seek justice.

Disclosures might be elicited, for example in interviews by Home Office officials dealing with a young person’s immigration case. Disclosures can also be accidental, like when a child is involved in an accident and other injuries are found. This is complex territory and, like Farah described, “blocking it out” for years could be an indication of the level of trauma experienced.

There are cases where children have actively tried to tell somebody about their abuse, where they purposefully present themselves at children’s services, but have been turned away, not believed, or worse, returned to their traffickers.

Children who have been affected by trafficking are often required to tell their story again and again. This can be a traumatic experience for anybody, child or adult, trafficking victim or not. There may be feelings of guilt or shame associated, fear of unknown consequences, or a child may simply not have the right words to explain what is happening to them.

Identifying trafficking

The UK established a National Referral Mechanism in 2009 to proactively identify, protect and support victims of trafficking. Since then, there has been a steady rise in numbers of referrals of both adults and children, with a record 12,727 referrals in 2021, up 20% from the year before.

Of these referrals, 43% were for children from the UK and elsewhere. UK-born children were referred mainly for criminal exploitation, while those from abroad were mainly trafficked for sexual and labour exploitation.

There is much more that could be done to help children who have been trafficked feel safe enough to disclose their experiences. Sadly, the UK’s immigration policies focused on deterrence are doing little to enable this. Farah said he was “relieved” that the Home Office wouldn’t take action against him, but others who are not national sports heroes may not receive the same assurance.

Overall,

If young people do not have someone to turn to, do not think professionals will take them seriously, or have been disbelieved in the past, it is unlikely they will trust those same professionals to offer them protection or the safety they need.The Conversation

Patricia Hynes is professor of Social Justice, Sheffield Hallam University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Watch: ‘Is Aryan Khan Owed an Apology and Compensation by the NCB?’

Senior Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan addresses the burning questions on the ‘drugs on cruise’ case in a live interview with Karan Thapar. 

“Is Aryan Khan owed an apology and compensation?”

“Does the NCB need to be taken to task for the deliberate leaks based on false suspicions and unjustified speculation?”

“Was the media wrong to hold daily TV discussions and publish lengthy newspaper articles when not one official was prepared to go on record with the information they were giving?”

“What should happen to Sameer Wankhede? Should he be punished?”

Senior Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan addresses these questions in a live interview with Karan Thapar.

Watch | ‘Aryan Deserves NCB’s Apology, Need Law to Compensate for Wrongful Arrest’: Mukul Rohatgi

The lawyer who fought Aryan Khan’s case in court has said that the NCB would rise in stature if it were to offer him an apology.

The lawyer who fought Aryan Khan’s case in court, Mukul Rohatgi, has said that Aryan Khan deserves an apology from the NCB and the NCB would rise in stature if it were to give him one.

Rohatgi, India’s former Attorney General, also told Karan Thapar in a 15-interview for The Wire, that we need a law stipulating compensation for wrongful arrests. He also said that the police and other investigating agencies must think very carefully before they arrest people against whom they have suspicions. He said just because the authorities have the power to arrest does not mean the arrest is justified.

In the interview, Rohatgi is questioned about the NCB Director General S. N. Pradhan’s response to the question as to whether the arrest was justified. “In investigation, subsequent facts clear up the matter so I won’t jump to blame the initial investigation,” Pradhan had said.

Rohatgi is also questioned about Sameer Wankhede, about deliberate leaks and also about the media debates and newspaper coverage, all of which were based on those unsubstantiated leaks.

‘Shoddy Work’ in Aryan Khan Case: Govt Orders Action Against Ex-NCB Officer Sameer Wankhede

Earlier today, it was reported that Shah Rukh Khan’s son was given a clean chit by the Narcotics Control Bureau in the October 2021 ‘drugs-on-cruise’ case.

New Delhi: The Union government is reported to have ordered action against former Narcotics Control Bureau officer Sameer Wankhede for what it has described as “shoddy” work while probing the ‘drugs-on-cruise’ case in which Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan was arrested last year.

“Appropriate action is also being initiated against Wankhede for allegedly providing a fake caste certificate,” PTI has reported sources as having said.

Aryan Khan was given a clean chit by the Narcotics Control Bureau in the October 2021 ‘drugs-on-cruise’ case earlier today.

Wankhede is an Indian Revenue Service officer and the finance ministry is the nodal authority in his case.

Wankhede was Mumbai zonal director of the NCB and handled the initial investigation after a much-publicised anti-drugs raid on a cruise. Aryan was arrested by the NCB on October 3 last year in the case.

He was granted bail after almost a month – on October 28 – by the Bombay high court, which dismissed NCB’s arguments and said it can not just rely on WhatsApp messages to make such grave allegations.

In October, two witnesses – Prabhakar Sail and Shekhar Kamble – alleged that NCB officials including Wankhede had made them sign blank papers. While Kamble alleged that he was made to sign on papers which were used to implicate a Nigerian national from whom no drugs were eventually found, Sail had said that the papers he signed pertained to the ‘drugs-on-cruise’ case in which Aryan Khan had been arrested.

Sail also levelled sensational allegations of extortion against those involved in the case, saying that he had overheard K.P. Gosavi – an apparent private detective who was the NCB’s ‘independent witness’ in the case’ – saying that they would ‘settle’ for Rs 18 crore to let off Aryan Khan, of which Rs 8 crore would be paid to Sameer Wankhede.

Sail died of a heart attack in April this year.

On November 6 last year, the NCB headquarters removed Wankhede from the probe and transferred the case from Mumbai to a Delhi-based special investigation team formed under its deputy director-general (operations) Sanjay Kumar Singh.

Officials of the NCB, which filed its chargesheet in a Mumbai court, said the names of Aryan and five others were not there due to “lack of sufficient evidence”.

Wankhede is at present posted in the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Mumbai.

Indian Family of Four, Including 2 Children, Freeze to Death Near US-Canada Border

The family was attempting to illegally cross the border, according to US officials. A US national was charged with human trafficking.

New Delhi: A family of four Indians –including an infant – froze to death in Canada as they attempted to cross the US border illegally during a blizzard in what Justin Trudeau described as a “mind blowing” tragedy.

Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar on Friday expressed shock at the deaths and instructed the Indian ambassadors in the US and Canada to urgently respond to the situation.

US authorities have charged a US man with human trafficking after the four – a man, woman, baby and teenager – were found dead in the province of Manitoba, a few yards north of the frontier with Minnesota. The bodies were found on Wednesday, January 19.

The four have been identified as a family from India, part of a larger group trying to enter the US by walking across snow-covered fields in a remote region during blizzard-like conditions.

“It was an absolutely mind-blowing story. It’s so tragic to see a family die like that, victims of human traffickers … and of people who took advantage of their desire to build a better life,” Trudeau told a news conference.

“This is why we are doing all we can to discourage people from crossing the border in an irregular or illicit manner.”

Canada, Trudeau said, was working very closely with the United States to stop smuggling and help people “taking unacceptable risks.”

The four people died about 6 miles (10 km) east of Emerson, a small farming community. David Carlson, head of the local municipal council, said there was no shelter at all in the area.

“It would almost be like a lunar-type landscape and you can become lost or disoriented very quickly in those kinds of conditions, especially as you’re beginning to freeze and no doubt panic,” he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

“There’s no lights up there. You would have probably been in close to zero visibility.”

Jaishankar said he was shocked by the deaths.

He spoke to India’s ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu and India’s high commissioner in Canada Ajay Bisaria.

Ambassador Sandhu said it was an unfortunate and tragic incident.

India’s high commissioner in Canada Bisaria said it was a grave tragedy.

According to court documents, US Border Patrol (USBP) officials in North Dakota stopped a 15-passenger van just south of the Canadian border on Wednesday.

Human trafficking

The US Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota issued a release late Thursday afternoon and said the driver was identified as 47-year-old Steve Shand of Florida, who had been arrested and charged with human smuggling in connection with the incident.

Law enforcement officials have also determined that there were two undocumented Indian nationals, the Department of Justice said.

The court documents said that law enforcement officials discovered cases of plastic cups, bottled water, bottled juice, and snacks located in the extreme rear of the passenger van.

As they were taking the trio back to the border patrol station in North Dakota, officers came across another group of five Indian nationals walking.

They told them that they had walked across the border and expected to be picked up by someone.

The group said they estimated they had been walking for more than 11 hours, and they appeared to be headed to an unstaffed gas plant located in St. Vincent, Minnesota.

One of the group members was carrying a backpack that did not belong to him.

He told authorities that he was carrying the backpack for a family of four Indian nationals that had earlier walked with his group but got separated at night.

The backpack contained children’s clothes, a diaper, toys, and some children’s medication.

According to court documents, on January 19, the USBP received a report from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that four bodies were found frozen just inside the Canadian side of the international border.

The dead bodies were tentatively identified as the family of four that got separated.

Two of the surviving Indian nationals sustained serious injuries and were transported to a hospital.

Shand is charged with one count of knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that a foreign national had come to, entered, or remained in the United States in violation of law, having transported, and moved or having attempted to transport such nationals.

(With agency inputs)

What the Case Against Ghislaine Maxwell Revealed About Female Sex Offenders

After five days of deliberations, a jury found Ghislaine Maxwell guilty of five counts relating to the sexual abuse of girls.

British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell has been convicted for her role in luring and grooming girls to be sexually abused by the American financier Jeffrey Epstein.

In a court in lower Manhattan, Maxwell – a close friend of Epstein’s – was found guilty of five counts including sex trafficking a minor. She now faces a maximum sentence of 65 years behind bars.

The verdict comes more than two years after Epstein took his own life while in jail awaiting trial on charges including conspiracy to traffic underage girls for sex.

Maxwell’s trial provided an opportunity for victims of Epstein and Maxwell to give court testimony about the abuse they experienced. The case also highlights the importance of understanding sex offenses perpetrated by women.

Maxwell was convicted on charges including trafficking a minor for sexual purposes and conspiracy to transport an individual under the age of 17 across state lines with the intent of engaging in illegal sexual activity. To date, Maxwell is the only person to stand trial for the abuse of these girls.

We have studied women who have been convicted of sexual assault, abuse and human trafficking, as well as public attitudes toward sex offenders. Our research, and that of others, shows the similarities and differences between male and female sexual offenders.

How common are sex offence charges against women?

The majority of sex offenders are believed to be male. Charges lodged against women may include sexual abuse of children but often involve grooming or trafficking girls without engaging in the act of sexually abusing the child.

Estimates of the proportion of sexual abuse committed by women range from 1% when based on conviction rates to 40%, according to some surveys of people who are survivors of sexual abuse.

But arrest and conviction rates may underrepresent the actual number of female sex offenders because those who have been assaulted by a woman are less likely to report the abuse. It is believed this results from social norms that define sexual assault as being perpetrated by men, and rape myths that say boys should always want sex or could not be overpowered by a woman.

Female offenders are also less likely than men to be arrested and convicted. And, if they are convicted, they typically receive shorter sentences than male offenders.

Women as co-offenders

Women who commit sexual offences differ from male offenders in many ways. Female offenders are more likely to offend in a caregiving role, such as babysitter, teacher, parent or guardian of the victim.

The victims of female offenders are often younger than those of male offenders, and female offenders are equally likely to offend against female and male victims.

However, the most striking difference is that female offenders are six times more likely than male offenders to have a co-offender, meaning two or more people participate in the abuse of the same victim.

Elements of this profile of a female offender fit what we now know of Maxwell. She participated with Epstein, a male co-offender several years her senior. In court, victims portrayed Maxwell as someone whom they initially believed they could trust, viewing her like a friend or an older sister.

In testimony and interviews, Epstein’s victims report that the presence of Maxwell before and during the assaults made them feel that they were safe. The victims questioned their feelings that what was happening was actually rape or sexual assault. They report ignoring red flags because they felt that if Maxwell acted as if the situation were normal, they must be wrong in feeling violated.

Maxwell a ‘sophisticated predator’

Research shows that women may be involved by recruiting and manipulating the victims into dangerous situations and helping to provide a sense of safety for the victims. They may coerce or manipulate the victim, or behave in sexually abusive ways in front of, or at the same time as, the male abuser.

Victims of Epstein have said that the financier’s female co-offenders – including Maxwell – engaged in all of these forms of abuse.

In the Maxwell trial, the court heard how she pressured victims into sexual acts with Epstein, would talk to the girls about sex and sexually touch the victims.

Women co-offend for many reasons. Some may abuse victims for reasons similar to male offenders – for example, to gain power, to retaliate against someone or because of sexual deviance.

However, many are coerced or forced by the male co-offender.

During the closing argument in Maxwell’s trial, both these pictures of the female sexual offender were presented. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Moe characterised Maxwell as a “sophisticated predator who knew exactly what she was doing.” “She ran the same playbook again and again and again,” Moe said.

Defence attorney Laura Menninger framed Maxwell as a victim of Epstein’s manipulation, stating, “It was clear Epstein was a manipulator of everyone around him. Someone like Jeffrey Epstein is always trying to control the people around them – use his position to manipulate people and play them off against one another.”

What should be done?

If there is one positive outcome of the high-profile trial of Maxwell, it is that it has shown that perpetrators of sexual abuse can be women.

In our experience, many sexual violence prevention programs, materials and public service announcements universally depict perpetrators as men only. This not only teaches children to fear men but also may make potential victims more likely to trust a woman, even when her behavior is coercive, manipulative or abusive.

Prevention programs can be designed to specifically address women as potential perpetrators to prevent abuses, such as those alleged in the Maxwell case.

Poco Kernsmith is Professor of Social Work, Wayne State University; Erin B. Comartin is Assistant Professor of Social Work, Wayne State University; and Sheryl Kubiak is Dean and Professor of Social Work, Wayne State University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Watch | Hamara Samvidhan: Article 23: Prohibition of Traffic in Human Beings and Forced Labour

In this video, advocate Avani Bansal explains what Article 23 says, analyses different judgments of the Supreme Court and what the constitution says on trafficking and forced labour.

In episode 29 of Hamara Samvidhan, The Wire discusses Article 23 of the Indian constitution.

Article 23 reads:

Prohibition of traffic in human beings and forced labour
(1) Traffic in human beings and begar and other similar forms of forced labour are prohibited and any contravention of this provision shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law.

(2) Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from imposing compulsory service for public purposes, and in imposing such service the State shall not make any discrimination on grounds only of religion, race, caste or class or any of them.

Do you know that according to Article 23, it is unconstitutional to force any person to work, or not to pay minimum income, or to traffic human beings?

In this video, advocate Avani Bansal explains what Article 23 says, analyses different judgments of the Supreme Court and what the constitution says on trafficking and forced labour.

Now, Witness In Another NCB Case Claims He Was Made to Sign Blank Papers by Sameer Wankhede

The NCB on Wednesday recorded Wankhede’s statement for more than four hours in connection with allegations of extortion levelled by Prabhakar Sail, a witness in the Aryan Khan drugs case.

New Delhi: Days after Prabhakar Sail, a witness in the Aryan Khan drugs case claimed that he was made to sign blank papers by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), another witness in a separate drugs case on Wednesday levelled a similar allegation against the agency’s officials, including its Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede.

The witness, Shekhar Kamble, a resident of Navi Mumbai, said he was made to sign on 10-12 blank papers by Wankhede and others, which were later used as panchnama in connection with a Nigerian national’s arrest from Navi Mumbai’s Kharghar in August this year.

In a separate development, the NCB on Wednesday recorded Wankhede’s statement after Sail’s allegation of extortion. Sail’s statement was also recorded, but by the Mumbai police.

Also Read: Politics Takes Centre Stage in NCB’s Probe Into Cruise Drugs Case

He also claimed that although no drugs were recovered from the Nigerian national, the NCB falsely showed that some amount of MD was found on him.

He said he had played the role of an informer in that case and after the raid in Kharghar, the NCB had caught two Nigerians, but let off one of them, he claimed.

“On the day of the raid in August, I along with six NCB officials reached Kharghar to catch a Nigerian national, but he managed to flee from the spot. Later, we went to another location in Kharghar, where around 50 Nigerians were present. As we entered, all of them escaped, but the officials caught two Nigerians and brought them to the NCB office, where one of them was let off,” he said.

“After taking my and friend’s Aadhaar cards, the NCB officials asked me just to sign 10 to 12 blank papers. When I asked them about the panchnama, Wankhede and other officials said they will write it and I don’t have to worry,” Kamble added.

He said he came to know that he was a witness in the case after Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik made public a list of the agency’s 26 different drugs cases and the witnesses in those cases.

He said after he read Malik’s claims, he rang up NCB officer Anil Mane on Tuesday to express his concern over the claims in the case against the Nigerian.

“The officer asked me to visit the NCB office on Wednesday, but I did not go,” Kamble said.

Kamble said he now fears for his life as anything can happen to him since he has spoken up about the NCB’s “frauds”.

Sail, a witness in the cruise drugs case, had also claimed that he was made to sign blank papers by the NCB. He levelled sensational allegations of extortion against those involved in the case, saying that he had overheard K.P. Gosavi – an apparent private detective who was the NCB’s ‘independent witness’ in the case’ – saying that they would ‘settle’ for Rs 18 crore to let off Aryan Khan, of which Rs 8 crore would be paid to Wankhede.

The case in which Kamble was a witness is against a Nigerian national who was held at a Nigerian community kitchen. It said the accused is a big MD trafficker or supplier in Navi Mumbai and has international linkages.

Minister Malik has repeatedly termed the cruise drugs case as “fake” and levelled various allegations against Wankhede, including illegal phone tapping and forging caste certificates. Wankhede has refuted the allegations and has denied any wrongdoing. He has accused Malik of smearing.

Also Read: NCP’s Nawab Malik Accuses Sameer Wankhede of Illegally Tapping Phones, Says an ‘Extortion Racket’ Is Running In The NCB

NCB records Wankhede’s statement

The NCB on Wednesday recorded Wankhede’s statement for more than four hours. A team headed by NCB deputy director general (northern region) Gyaneshwar Singh has collected some “crucial documents of the case from the (western) zone office”, according to news agency PTI.

“Taking ahead the investigation we recorded statement of Sameer Wankhede for four-and-a-half-hours during which he has shared many things before the team. We will collect some more documents from him in the coming time, and if required, we will get more information from him,” Singh told media persons.

Wankhede’s statement was recorded at the NCB’s office in Ballard Estate in south Mumbai and the CRPF mess in suburban Bandra.

When asked whether Wankhede will continue to probe the cruise drugs seizure case, Singh said, “Let the investigation go ahead. If I have something concrete then only I will be able to submit a report to my DG.”

He also appealed to Gosavi, the absconding witness of NCB in the cruise drugs case, and Sail, another independent witness in the case, to join the enquiry. “If they had any complaints or allegations they can approach us and record their statements,” he said.

Responding to a query, Singh said, “We want to conduct an impartial and independent inquiry and that’s why we chose different locations for camping rather than the NCB zonal office”.

On Wednesday morning, a five-member vigilance probe team of the NCB landed in Mumbai and started its probe. They collected some documents and recordings from the NCB office at Ballard Estate in south Mumbai.

DDG Singh is heading the departmental vigilance probe into allegations of extortion.

“All the material witnesses in the probe will be called to record their statements, I will not take the name of any individual,” Singh added.

Sources earlier said the inquiry will also look into Gosavi, who was spotted near Aryan Khan after the raids, and the procedures followed by the sleuths while entrusting the custody of all the accused arrested on October 3 from the international cruise terminal in Mumbai. Photos and videos of Gosavi with Aryan Khan have gone viral on social media and other news platforms.

The role of all the officers and witnesses involved in the case will be probed and it will be recorded if they followed the NCB manual and procedures mentioned in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act during such operations, they said.

People express support to NCB Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede outside the NCB office in New Delhi, October 26, 2021. Photo: PTI/Ravi Choudhary

Meanwhile, the Mumbai police recorded the statement Sail for over eight hours in connection with his allegation of extortion by NCB officials in the drugs seizure case involving Aryan Khan. Sail appeared before the city police on Tuesday evening and the process of recording his statement was completed at around 3 am on Wednesday, according to a police officer.

He has been provided protection by the city police in the wake of revelations he made in his application, an official told PTI.

On Tuesday, Sail’s lawyer Tushar Khandare claimed that his client was “misused” during the NCB raid on the cruise ship off the coast of Mumbai earlier this month.

The city police on Tuesday said they received four applications alleging extortion by NCB Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede and other officials, and have launched an enquiry to verify these claims.

One of the applications was sent by Sail.

Police teams are also verifying locations of mobile phone numbers as well as CCTV footages of various places mentioned in Sail’s application.

The Mumbai Police have also received two applications against Maharashtra cabinet minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik, an official said earlier, without elaborating.

Sail on Tuesday said he stood by his allegation of extortion demand against Wankhede and others, and nobody had tutored him.

(With PTI inputs)

Assam Judge Alleges Hospital Tried to Kill Him, Police Case Filed

A case was registered against Aditya Diagnostics and Hospitals on the basis of the complaint. The hospital rubbished the allegation and said they would file a defamation case against judge Nogen Senabaya Deori.

Dibrugarh: The judge of a court in Assam’s Dibrugarh district lodged a police complaint, alleging that a private hospital attempted to kill him while he was undergoing treatment as it was involved in organ trafficking, police said on Friday.

A case was registered against Aditya Diagnostics and Hospitals on the basis of the complaint, Dibrugarh Additional Superintendent of Police Bipul Chetia said.

“No arrests have been made yet as it is a complicated case and requires the help of domain experts,” he said.

The hospital rubbished the allegation and said they would file a defamation case against judge Nogen Senabaya Deori, the presiding officer of the Industrial Tribunal, Dibrugarh, and in charge of the labour court, Dibrugarh.

Judge Deori said that he was admitted to the hospital on September 9 as he had mild fever and was feeling unwell after testing positive for COVID-19. He was shifted to the ICU the next day.

Also Read: Can’t Assume All COVID-19 Deaths in 2nd Wave Due to Medical Negligence: SC

He alleged that several medicines were injected in his saline drip and an injection was directly pushed onto his naval region.

Around 10 pm on September 10, Judge Deori alleged that he was given another injection after which he became unconscious. He regained consciousness around 2 am.

Two nurses then allegedly attempted to inject more medicines into him, which he resisted throughout the night, and managed to send messages to his son and friends, including to an Additional District and Sessions Judge, to come to his aid, Judge Deori claimed in his complaint.

Around 6 am, when one of the nurses tried to forcibly inject him again, he dragged her by her hand to an open area and attempted to leave the ward, but was stopped by two men, he alleged.

Judge Deori alleged that he was kept confined to the corner of a room following that. After his son reached the hospital, he took discharge and went to Guwahati for further treatment.

He alleged that he had spotted medicines and equipment needed for surgery to take out organs kept near his bed after he had regained consciousness, but those were later removed.

The proprietor of the hospital Dr Nirmal Sahewala said Judge Deori was kept in the ICU as he was an “esteemed patient” and they wanted to ensure the best treatment for him.

He started behaving abnormally after regaining consciousness in the early hours of September 11 and had dragged a nurse by her hand, attempting to leave the COVID ward, which he also managed briefly, Dr Sahewala said.

“We have CCTV footage to prove our claims. We will cooperate fully with the police as we have nothing to hide,” he said.

Dr Sahewala maintained that the hospital acted as per COVID-19 protocols and the Judge had left in good spirits when he boarded the ambulance for Guwahati.

“We had let go of his behaviour but now with the FIR against us, we will also explore legal action. We will file a defamation suit against him,” he added.