New Delhi, Feb 20 (PTI) A Delhi court has convicted a toy-factory owner for employing minors at his unit in the Inderlok area here in 2016, while acquitting him and his co-accused of the charges of human trafficking and unlawful compulsory labour.
Additional Sessions Judge Joginder Prakash Nahar held accused Mohammad Shamim guilty under section 3 (prohibition of employment of children in any occupations and processes), read with section 14 (penalties for employing children under 14), of the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) (CLPR) Act.
The case arose from an FIR registered at the Sarai Rohilla police station on November 17, 2016, after several boys working at the factory allegedly fell unconscious due to food poisoning. One of them, Mansoom, later died during treatment.
According to the prosecution, the boys, aged around 13 to 16 years, were engaged in assembling and pasting stickers on toys at the factory located in Shahzada Bagh and were paid monthly wages.
While examining the charges under sections 370 (trafficking) and 374 (unlawful compulsory labour) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the court observed that the essential ingredients of trafficking, including recruitment through threat, coercion, fraud or exploitation, were not established.
“In the present case, there is no allegation … regarding physical or sexual exploitation. The only allegation is that they had joined the job in the toy factory and they were remunerated for the work done by them,” the court said in its judgment dated February 12.
The judge noted that the prosecution witnesses, many of whom turned hostile, had deposed that they came to Delhi on their own volition, were free to move, stayed in nearby rented premises and were paid wages.
“None of the above prosecution witnesses has deposed that there was any kind of restriction for them to visit their homes. Had there been any threat or exploitation, then the victims could have approached the competent authority or any police official to submit their grievance,” the court said.
“Hence, it is found that the victims were not unlawfully compelled by the accused person to do labour beyond their will and the necessary ingredients under section 374, IPC, have remained unproved,” it held.
The court acquitted the accused under sections 75 (cruelty to child) and 79 (exploitation of a child employee) of the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act. It noted that there was no medical evidence linking Mansoom’s death to the conditions at the factory.
“There is no evidence on record on the basis of which it can be said that the children were kept in bondage for the purpose of employment or their earnings were withheld. The assault, abuse, abandons, illegal exposure or neglect of the child with unnecessary mental and physical suffering is not proved on record,” the court said, adding that the case fails to meet the necessary ingredients for sections 75 and 79 of the JJ Act.
However, the court concluded that the prosecution has successfully established that the petitioners were minors at the time of the incident, with most of them aged under 14, and were working at the factory in violation of the CLPR Act.
On February 17, amidst the hearing on arguments on sentencing, convict Shamim moved an application for the grant of probation. The court allowed the application to be moved within a week and listed the matter for further hearing on February 25. PTI MDB RC
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