Sonu Punjaban, the operator of Delhi’s biggest sex racket, has been sentenced to 24 years of jail term. A local court, while sentencing Sonu Punjaban said, she “crossed all limits to be called a woman and deserves the severest punishment”.
Who is Sonu Punjaban and why does she deserve the ‘severest punishment’? Here’s all you need to know about Sonu Punjaban and her massive prostitution ring.
Who is Sonu Punjaban?
Sonu Punjaban, alias Geeta Arora, is a high-end pimp who operated a sex-racket in several states across India. Her base of operation and main clientele were in South Delhi, where she supplied girls – who were often kidnapped and drugged or were aspiring models and actresses – to powerful men for sexual services. According to a police statement in 2011, she had a number of high-class sex workers in her muster roll and supplied them in posh areas of Delhi, five-star hotels and farmhouses.
Sonu is also allegedly involved in a murder case in Haryana’s Jhajjar district.
When was she arrested?
Sonu Punjaban was nabbed by police several times, but she managed to evade punishment until one of the girls working for her came forward and filed a complaint against her.
Sonu Punjaban was first arrested under sections of the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act in 2007. While she got bail in the 2007 case, she was arrested for the same offence in 2008.
In April 2011, Delhi Police nabbed Sonu after they received a tip-off that she was again spotted indulging in prostitution. Police deployed two officers, who posed as customers and laid the trap. The officers then struck a deal with the tout, Raju Sharma, and Sonu for two girls.
Police then arrested Sonu, her four associates and four other men during a raid in Mehrauli. Since she had been arrested for the same crime twice before, the police charged her under provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
She spent some time in jail, but the court had to let her go due to a lack of evidence against her.
The case, which finally led to Sonu Punjaban’s jail term sentence, was initiated against her in 2014 when a girl escaped her captivity and filed a complaint in Najafgarh Police station. The girl told the police that she was nearly 13 years old when she was kidnapped in 2013 by a man named Sandeep Bedwal. Since then she had been forced to have sex with over 12 men, before being sold to Sonu Punjaban, who trained her in basic English and etiquette to please high-end customers.
A written complaint was made and her statement was recorded. However, before the victim could reach the court, she ran away. The matter was then transferred to the Delhi Police Crime Branch.
The crime branch finally traced the victim in 2017 and arrested Sonu Punjaban and Sandeep Bedwal. The Delhi Police had booked Sonu Punjaban for forcing minor girls into prostitution. Meanwhile, Sandeep Bedwal was booked on charges of raping minor girls. The Delhi court has upheld both these charges.
How long will she be in jail?
The Delhi court has convicted Sonu Punjaban under various provisions of the Immoral Traffic Act for trafficking the minor girl and forcing her into prostitution. In one case, she has been sentenced to serve 14 years and in other, she will serve 10 years, both these terms will be served consecutively, that is, one after the other. Her associate Sandeep Bedwal has been found guilty of raping the minor for which he will serve 20 years in prison. The court has also provided Rs 7 lakh compensation for the child.
The dramatic life
Sonu Punjaban not only played a long cat-and-mouse game with the law before being finally brought to justice, but she also lived a very dramatic life. Sonu Punjaban or Geeta Arora was born in East Delhi. By the time she came on Delhi Police’s radar, Sonu Punjab owned a house in South Delhi’s posh locality Saidullajab and had a prostitution ring that spread across state lines.
She was married twice, both times to criminals, who were later killed in police encounters. She took Sonu from her first husband’s name – Hemanu Sonu – after the gangster was killed in an encounter.
Sonu Punjaban changed tracks in life after she fell in love with gangster Vijay Singh, a close aide of gangster Shri Prakash Shukla. Sonu married Vijay Singh in 2003 but he was gunned down by UP’s STF in Garh Mukteshwar soon after they got married. Her next boyfriend, Deepak, was shot down as well in Assam.
According to reports, investigators say she has a fascination for “bad boys” and every man who has come in her life has died.
She also attempted suicide inside Delhi’s Tihar Jail after the Delhi court convicted her last week. She was taken to a hospital after she consumed an excess amount of pills meant for headache. She recovered following treatment.
The reel life Punjaban
The sheer size of her sex racket and her ability to evade the law had made her a famous figure. Richa Chadha’s character Bholi Punjaban in 2013 film ‘Fukrey’ and ‘Fukrey Returns’ was based on Sonu Punjaban.
