Yet another shocking incident has come into the spotlight where a woman from Punjab was sold in Oman by her cousin sister. The woman who sold her was a travel agent by profession, and the victim herself was the daughter of the travel agent’s maternal aunt. The victim has revealed that she was subjected to extreme cruelty by her captors in Dubai.
Speaking to The Indian Express, the victim said her sister served her the hopes of a better life in Oman with an assurance that she would face no harm. The cousin, Preet Kaur (also known as Pinki), currently lives in Oman and is originally from Chhota Rayia in Amritsar. Pinki asked her to arrange for Rs 40,000, of which half would be paid in India while the rest was to be paid in Oman. The victim said she was aware of the miseries of the woman who went to Oman and initially refused Pinki’s offer. However, Pinki pushed for it and ultimately convinced her.
How the torture unfolded?
The victim revealed that upon her arrival at the Sharjah airport in April 2023, she was taken to a house by a man and woman, who later confiscated her passport. Several other women were trapped in that house without food, she added. Recalling the atrocities she put up with, the victim said she was threatened she would be made to stand on one leg without food or water for five days after she refused to sign a contract in English as she could not read it. Having suffered the pain brought on by an empty stomach, the victim collapsed after a few hours.
Following this ordeal, she was forced to record a video in which she said that she had come to Oman on her own and was willing to pay Rs 1.50 lakh to her employer if she returned before completing two years with them. “I made the video because I had no other option but to face more physical torture,” the victim told The Indian Express.
After enduring all this in the UAE, she was finally sent to Oman where around 200 girls from Punjab, Bengal, Nepal and other places were detained.
The victim, who is a divorced woman in her forties, said all the captured girls would be lined up for sheikhs to choose from amongst them as if they were buying carrots-radish from a market. “It was highly demeaning to us,” the victim added. Her months of torture came to end when she returned to India on June 2. She had somehow managed to escape her captors and got a job in a household. Later, she sought the Indian Embassy’s help and filed an application for assistance. She eventually met MP Vikramjit Sahney during a visit to a gurdwara. He assisted her and several other women with their passports.
The victim now lives in Nakodar. Pinki has now been booked under several sections of the IPC after the victim lodged a complaint against her for mentally torturing her and making false promises before selling her in Oman, the Station House Officer (SHO) of Nakodar City police station, Baljit Singh, confirmed. Pinki has also been charged under Section 13 of the Punjab Travel Professional Regulation Act.