Shivpuri: Minor girls abducted & given hormone shots

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh Police have zeroed in on a village in Chambal region, where over 100 girls, many of whom were abducted, raised and given hormonal injections to push them into prostitution in future.
Startling tip-off on presence of gang using growth hormones to help minors attain early puberty came from a girl, who managed to escape from their den on September 23 in Shivpuri.The girl was sold after kidnapping her from Maxi village in Shajapur district along with three other young girls in 2008. Todipura, the village where she was held captive, is hardly 50 metres from Berad police station.
The survivor, who was 9-year-old when kidnapped, told police that she was sold to a woman, Sonia Singh in Shivpuri district's Todipura village - 20 km from the district headquarters. Four days later, Sonia was arrested and sent to jail after interrogation.
Sonia Singh, a resident of West Bengal, owns flat in Mumbai. She keeps shuttling between Mumbai and Shivpuri where she married a man belonging to traditional sex workers community.
A joint team of Indore, Ujjain and Shajapur police raided Todipura and Dabrapura village, but in vain. Apparently, those into it got wind of the operation and escaped with children abandoning their houses. More than 20 houses in the area were found locked.
"We are trying our best to bust the gang," said Avinash Sharma, Shajapur superintendent of police (SP).
The survivor told police after her abduction, she was taken to Todipura where Sonia Singh and her accomplices used to inject her drugs. She was pushed into prostitution at age of 11 and was trained to tackle customers. She was taken across the country, especially Goa, Mumbai, Delhi and Gujarat. She said she attempted to run from their clutches in the past, but was caught and tortured.
She escaped before being sent abroad, said sources in the police department. "There are 100 more young girls with villagers and most of them are kidnapped from different places. They too are being drugged," she told police.
Surprisingly a couple identified as Raju and Anita, who allegedly kidnapped children, died when lightning struck them. Whereabouts of three others who were sold are not known, police said.
"It's really surprising that the lightning claimed the life of couple in Nagpur. We are collecting documents from hospital where autopsy was performed," Shajapur SP told TOI. When contacted, ADG Aruna Mohan Rao, chief of state's anti-human trafficking cell, said separate teams would be formed to investigate the matter.
Intelligence officials claimed the racket is being run from obscure villages in Shivpuri and could be part of global network, if number of passport holders in the area is any indication. A senior police officer, who had raided the locality earlier and wished to remain anonymous, said, "We had found bills of jewellery shops in Dubai and Saudi Arabia in small houses."