VARANASI: A 12-year-old Bihar girl allegedly sold by her mother “for Rs 16,000 and 10 saris” to a 40-year-old man from Chandauli in neighbouring UP was repeatedly raped by him after a sham temple marriage, only to be abandoned and preyed on by an auto driver in Varanasi before being rescued.Investigators said Chandauli’s Lahru Yadav alias Rakesh, a widower, went to great lengths to stage the sham marriage, reportedly spending around Rs 90,000 on a hair transplant in farway Delhi to appear younger — nearly six times the sum he allegedly shelled out for the child.The girl’s statements before Child Welfare Committee, where she was brought after locals found her roaming and crying in Varanasi’s Sarnath on May 21 and alerted Uttar Pradesh cops, revealed a chilling sequence of trafficking, sexual assault and abandonment. The mother, Yadav and auto driver Ravi Verma were arrested Saturday, days after a case was filed in Sarnath.Sarnath ACP Vidush Saxena said the girl told investigators that her mother sold her in Jan this year. Investigators said Yadav lived separately from his family after the death of his wife. He carried out the mock nuptials at the temple Chandauli’s Chahania area. Later, he allegedly raped the girl repeatedly and even forced her to work as a domestic help.According to the investigators, villagers and neighbours warned Yadav that keeping a minor girl as wife could land him in serious legal trouble.Yadav later abandoned the girl near Banaras railway station in Manduadih area of Sarnath on May 19. There, auto driver Verma, a Jharkhand native, allegedly approached the girl, promising to help reunite her with her mother. Instead, he took her near a pond and raped her, the investigators said citing the child’s statements. Verma then dumped the girl on May 21 and fled.An FIR was filed on May 22 against the accused under BNS sections pertaining to rape and Pocso Act. Sarnath inspector Pankaj Kumar Tripathi said the three were picked up from different locations.
