Ranit Kr. Singh , Lucknow - The Uttar Pradesh police have arrested three individuals, including a mother who allegedly sold her 12-year-old daughter for ₹16,000 and 10 saris to a 40-year-old man. The buyer, Lahru Yadav, staged a sham temple marriage in Chandauli and repeatedly raped the minor, forcing her to work as a domestic help. After neighbors warned him of severe legal consequences for marrying a minor, Yadav abandoned the girl near the Banaras railway station on May 19.

The child's ordeal intensified when Ravi Verma, an auto driver from Jharkhand, approached her under the pretext of reuniting her with her mother. Instead, he took her to an isolated area near a pond and raped her before abandoning her on May 21. Local residents spotted the victim crying in Varanasi's Sarnath area and alerted the police. The girl was rescued and brought before the Child Welfare Committee, where her detailed statement exposed the chilling sequence of human trafficking and sexual abuse.

An FIR has been registered under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) pertaining to rape, alongside the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Sarnath Assistant Commissioner of Police Vidush Saxena confirmed that all three accused—the mother, Yadav, and Verma—were apprehended from different locations on Saturday. The incident has sparked immense public outrage, underscoring the urgent need for more stringent enforcement of child protection laws and intensified vigilance against human trafficking networks targeting vulnerable minors.