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Bihar: 17 minor girls from Chhattisgarh, MP rescued from alleged trafficking; 3 held
Following a tip-off that teenage girls were being brought to Bardihan from other states on the pretext of work and allegedly forced into trafficking and bonded labour, police teams raided the area
Sasaram: Seventeen minor girls were rescued from alleged trafficking and three people were arrested during a raid in Bardihan village of Bihar’s Rohtas district on Wednesday night, police said.
Following an intelligence input that a large number of teenage girls were being brought to Bardihan from outside the state on the pretext of providing them work and allegedly forced into trafficking and bonded labour, police teams from five police stations, led by Bikramganj additional SP Saket Kumar, raided the location.
Superintendent of Police (SP) Rohtas Raushan Kumar said the rescued girls, residents of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, were handed over to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) at Sasaram and authorities in the concerned states were informed.
The three people arrested were identified as Mamta Vishwakarma and Gita Kunwar from Bardihan and Raman Kumar Paswan alias Munna from Ballia village.
“A case under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act and Bonded Labour System Act was registered against 11 orchestra operators and 15–20 of their associates,” SP Kumar said.
According to the police, those arrested said during interrogation that they lured minor girls from Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
Police are investigating the criminal history of those arrested, and raids are on to arrest the other five accused operators and their associates, the SP added.
The rescued teenagers were sent to a children’s home in Mohania in Kaimur district, and the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights was being informed about the racket with a request to take steps to curb the inhuman trade, CWC member Dadan Pandey said.
In March, 47 minor tribal children, including 44 girls, from Chhattisgarh had been rescued during raids at Natwar. Chhattisgarh authorities had arrived and taken them back for rehabilitation.
