In a landmark verdict given by Hon’ble Ananta Raj Dumre on the case of trafficking against Bajir Singh Tamang, Sikharpur-9 in Sindhupalchowk District Court, the judge has decided a total of 170 years imprisonment. He was the top-most wanted in the list of police for many years. CeLRRd had filed six FIRs against Tamang for exploiting and trafficking six women in a brothel in Agra, India. Chautara B, E, F, J, L and G are the pseudo names given to those victims. After a whole one year of lodging the case, Tamang was caught by the police in Sorakhutte, Kathmandu. Several hearings were made in the court, before the breakthrough happened in the case on 11 July 2012. CeLRRd’s VLA lawyer, Adv. Bhesram Dhakal et. al worked actively on this case in collecting and analyzing proofs, and on victims’ counseling. “First he did fake marriages with us or sexually exploited us for some months, and then only sold us in brothels or forced us to do prostitution in the brothel that he owned in Sahidnagar, Agra”, cried the six victims during four days of giving statement in the court. In the brothel, said Chautara-J, there were 15 girls from Sindhupalchowk alone that she knew, and at once including her, 7 girls were trafficked through this racket. Bajir was the naike of this and though, two of his accomplices, Sukuman and Tek bahadur are also caught by the police, five others are still at large. The pro-active role played by the judge himself was very commendable in this case. After five hours of continuous pleading on the particular day, the judge finally decided on the case of Tamang with a total of 170 years jail, 13 lakhs fine and 9 lakhs compensation to victims, 1 and half lakhs to each. Sukuman was sentenced with 16 years imprisonment and three and half lakhs fine and Tekbahadur with 12 years and six months jail and three lakhs fine. Basanta Lama, DSP and Chief of District Police has said that the racket of Bajir might be much larger and therefore, they are rigorously investigating into it. Even more shocking side of this case is that, as Chautara J shared, she also encountered the daughter of Tek Bahadur who was sold by his own father in the brothel, however her whereabouts is now unknown.
