A 12-year-old girl was allegedly sold by her own mother and stepfather for Rs 12 lakh in Rajgarh district of Madhya Pradesh, with police confirming the child was subsequently raped by at least three men over several months before the case came to light through counselling.

A Family That Failed Her

The sequence of events began in January 2025 when the victim's biological father died due to excessive alcohol consumption, leaving the family without support. Within months, her mother remarried a man identified as Pawan alias Paramal Gurjar, a resident of Laharca Chak in Guna district.

After the second marriage, Pawan brought the girl and her mother to Rajgarh. According to investigators, it was here that the criminal conspiracy took shape — the child was treated not as a family member but as a commodity.

Forced into Marriage at 12

On 3 February 2025, the minor was forcibly married off to 26-year-old Bhola alias Bholaram Gurjar. Police say the transaction involved Rs 8 lakh in cash and jewellery worth Rs 4 lakh — an outright case of child trafficking dressed up as matrimony.

The groom allegedly raped the girl on their wedding night. In the weeks that followed, her stepfather Pawan also sexually assaulted her multiple times. Threatened into silence, the child endured the abuse without telling anyone.

Abandoned, Exploited, Assaulted Again

Her ordeal did not end there. Pawan eventually abandoned the girl's mother and went absconding. The mother then contracted a third marriage in Rajasthan and left her daughter behind at the home of a woman named Shaitanbai in Rajgarh, where the child was made to do household work.

It was during this period that another accused, Devraj Gurjar, found an opportunity to sexually assault her.

How the Case Surfaced

The matter came to the notice of Kotwali police station in-charge Inspector Manju Makhenia. Acting on the information, authorities placed the girl in a safe environment and arranged counselling. Once she felt assured of protection, the child narrated her ordeal in detail — describing months of physical, mental, and sexual abuse carried out under constant threats and intimidation.

"She had been living under fear for a long time. The counselling gave her the confidence to speak," a police official said.

Five Arrested, Mastermind Still at Large

An FIR bearing crime number 350/2026 has been registered at Kotwali police station under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act, and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act.

Five of the six accused have been arrested: Bhola alias Bholaram Gurjar, Devraj Gurjar, Sagar Gurjar, Shaitanbai, and the victim's mother. The prime accused, Pawan alias Paramal Gurjar, remains at large. Police have announced a reward of Rs 10,000 for information leading to his arrest and are conducting raids at multiple locations.

Child Marriage Still Happening in Shadows

Despite laws being in place for nearly five decades, child marriages continue to occur across India — not in public ceremony but in secrecy, often in agricultural fields, away from any gathering or decoration. The Prevention of Child Marriage Act was enacted in 2006 with strengthened provisions, following the 1978 amendment that raised the legal marriage age for girls to 18. Yet cases like this one reveal how legislation alone cannot protect a child when her own family becomes the instrument of exploitation.

The Rajgarh case is a stark reminder that trafficking does not always happen at borders or in distant cities. Sometimes it happens within the home.

A child trafficking case in Madhya Pradesh has taken a disturbing turn after police revealed that a Rajgarh-based businessman and his wife had allegedly bought a two-and-a-half-year-old girl for nearly Rs 1 lakh before abandoning her on a national highway in Sheopur. The couple, who had initially claimed they had adopted the child, allegedly left her on the Tonk-Chirgaon National Highway after branding her “inauspicious”.

Police have arrested six people in the case, including the couple and an Indore-based beauty parlour operator, as investigators widen the probe into a suspected child trafficking network spanning multiple cities.

Couple Arrested in Case

Sheopur police identified the accused as petrol pump operator Akash Moondra and his wife Kritika Moondra. Investigators said the couple abandoned the child near Soikalan on April 18 and later admitted during questioning that they believed the girl had brought financial losses to their business.

According to officials, the couple told police they considered the child “unlucky” and left her outside in the hope that their business fortunes would improve. The child was found alone on the Tonk-Chirgaon stretch of National Highway-552 and was unable to identify herself or her family.

Indore Link Emerges

During investigation, police found that the child had not been adopted through any legal process. Instead, officials said she was allegedly procured through an Indore-based parlour operator who acted as a middle link in the transaction.

Sources indicated that the woman, along with other associates, arranged the transfer of the child to the couple in exchange for around Rs 1 lakh. Following this lead, Sheopur police formed three teams and carried out raids in Indore, leading to multiple arrests.

Police suspect the group may have been involved in trafficking children to families through illegal channels and are now examining whether similar transactions took place earlier.

Caretaker Made Disclosure

The case gathered pace after a Bhopal-based caretaker identified the child through photographs circulated on social media. Babita Navik, who claimed she had looked after the girl, told police she had cared for the child after the couple brought her home as an infant.

She told investigators the girl was around three months old when the couple took her in. Babita alleged that she had been hired to care for the child for Rs 20,000 a month, but was never paid in full. She also alleged that the child was routinely beaten inside the house.

According to her statement, the couple never disclosed where the child had come from or whether they had completed any formal adoption process.

Legal Probe Expands

Police presented the child before the Child Welfare Committee after she was rescued and later shifted her to a One Stop Centre for care and protection. Officials said the child remains under state protection.

Investigators have now added charges related to human trafficking and provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act. Police are also trying to establish the child’s biological identity and trace how she first entered the trafficking chain.

Officials said the probe is focused on identifying the original source of the child and determining whether the network sourced children from vulnerable families for illegal sale.

Family Distances Itself

Akash Moondra’s family has publicly distanced itself from him. His brother told local authorities that Akash had been living separately for nearly five years and had no regular contact with the family.

He said the family was unaware of when or how the child had been brought into Akash’s household. He also confirmed that Akash had suffered business setbacks in recent years and had shut some of his petrol pump operations.

Wider Questions Raised

The case has raised fresh concerns over illegal adoption rackets, weak oversight and child protection failures in Madhya Pradesh. It also highlights how superstition, unregulated child transfers and trafficking can intersect in deeply troubling ways.

Police are expected to examine records, financial trails and possible links to similar cases in other cities. As the child trafficking case unfolds, officials say more arrests are possible.