Man arrested for sexually exploiting women on pretext of marriage

Amitava Banerjee | 5 July 2022 | Darjeeling: A person has been arrested for posing as an army personnel, luring young women with promises of marriage and then sexually exploiting them. 

Police arrested 34-year-old Sailendra (using aliases Tenzing Dukpa, Tshering Dukpa, Hemant Dukpa) of Bhutia Gaon, Pulungdung, Darjeeling on Sunday, based on the complaints lodged by a man, who claimed that his daughter had been missing from her rented apartment in Darjeeling since June 21. 

Police started investigation, which resulted in the arrest of Dukpa. "In her statement, the 22-year-old victim introduced himself as army personnel. Promising to marry her, he sexually exploited her. He even took her to different places including New Jalpaiguri, Indore, Bhopal and Guwahati," stated Pankaj Prasad, Assistant Public Prosecutor (APP)/. 

The accused has been charged under Sections 363, 365 (kidnapping,) 419 (cheating by personation,) 376 (sexual assault,) 140 (Not being a soldier – wearing garb of soldier) of the Indian Penal Code. 

He has been remanded to Judicial Custody till July 18. "In the past also Dukpa had been arrested by the Jorebunglow police under similar charges and also by the Sukhiapokhari police for cheating and impersonation. 

His modus operandi is the same," added the APP. "The victim had met the imposter on a social network site hardly two weeks before her disappearance. She had just spoken to him over the phone. He had convinced her that he would marry her and called her to NJP. After staying in a hotel for two to three days, they had gone to Madhya Pradesh and from there to Assam. Sensing something wrong, she finally managed to escape from his clutches and returned to Darjeeling," stated Nirnay John Chhetri of Marg, an NGO working in the human trafficking arena. 

Chettri stated that such cases were steadily on the rise in the Hills. 

Courtesy & source Millenium Post