Anti-human trafficking unit rescued 60 girls in 6 months

Navi Mumbai When a 16-year-old girl went missing from her Khandeshwar home three months ago, her parents were distraught. Her father, a labour-class worker, and

Navi Mumbai When a 16-year-old girl went missing from her Khandeshwar home three months ago, her parents were distraught. Her father, a labour-class worker, and her mother were almost apologetic and blamed themselves when she fled with a man, almost twice her age.

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Within 24 hours of a case being registered, a team of plainclothes policemen of the anti-human trafficking unit (AHTU) of the Navi Mumbai crime branch showed up at the family’s house. The parents had expected a barrage of questions or judgment from the police. But, the cops were sympathetic and they did not have to go through any humiliation.

Last week, the AHTU traced the girl to Nerul, where she had been living for the past three months with the 29-year-old truck driver. The accused, who took advantage of the girl’s vulnerability and maintained physical relationship with her, was arrested under stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.

Working out of a bungalow in a hamlet in Belapur - an erstwhile NRI police station, the AHTU is a team of 15 — two officers and 13 constables including four women. The team has traced 60 minor girls in the past six months.

In 2018, AHTU solved only 26 cases. Noticing such a few cases being solved, the city police commissioner Sanjay Kumar and deputy commissioner of police (crime) Pravin Patil met the newly appointed AHTU in-charge Arjun Garad in June.

Following a sensitisation programme on how to approach complainant families, the results were almost instant. While only a few families directly approach the AHTU, the unit started proactively investigating the cases registered across all police stations conducting parallel probe. Today, Garad sits in front of a whiteboard covered almost entirely in red with case numbers. The ‘red’ cases are the ones registered at police stations but are of utmost priority.

Soon after meeting the complainant families, the team collects information and gathers technical evidence. After conducting a local search operation, they meet again five hours later and analyse the evidence to trace the kidnapped girl.

In most cases, girls are in the age group of 14 and 17 while the accused are aged 19-25, said police. Most kidnapping cases this year have been from Rabale MIDC, Turbhe and Panvel city — largely from slum pockets.

In one case, a 17-year-old girl was rescued from Aurangabad. The 23-year-old boy was arrested and released on bail 10 days later. Soon after, they fled again and are untraceable.

Although the standard operating procedure is only for the AHTU to solve the cases and hand them over to either the Children Welfare Committee or their parents, depending on the case, the team often finds themselves playing the role of counsellors.

“The most challenging aspect is counselling the girls, who are at an impressionable age and they mistake physical attraction to someone for love and in many of these cases, the men are at least five to 10 years older than the girls,” said Garad.

AHTU also helps in special cases. In October, the team arrested a man from Haridwar who posed as a sadhu and raped a woman at her Kharghar flat for at least four months by giving her sedative concoctions. By the time officers reached Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, he had fled to Haridwar.

To find him among thousands of sadhus was a herculean task for the team. But the next day, he was identified and arrested at the railway station.

In November, the AHTU also organised an awareness campaign across schools during the children rights awareness week where 5 lakh school students were given pamphlets to create awareness of child sexual abuse, drug usage, child marriage and also child labour.