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Kingpin in Manipur trafficking case held

Iboyaima Laithangbam

State police claim a major breakthrough

Girls aged between 11 and 23 taken to Chennai on promise of employment
Centre orders
high-level inquiry
into the incident

IMPHAL: The Manipur police have claimed a major breakthrough in cracking girl trafficking scandals reported in the past few months with the arrest and detention of a tribal woman alleged to be the kingpin.

Apam Khamrang, 30, who was arrested on Tuesday by the police at Sekmai while she was escorting 18 girls to Chennai, has been sent to police custody by a court till October 8.

The tribal girls, aged between 11 and 23 years, were being taken to Chennai on the false promise of giving them employment.

All the girls have been handed over to their parents.

Suspicion

Police personnel became suspicious on seeing 18 girls being taken in a bus since there had been reports of trafficking in the recent past.

Though the arrested woman told police that they were being taken for employment in Chennai, the girls themselves did not know anything about the company’s name and what kind of jobs they would be given.

Further probe on

A top-ranking police officer said, “The tribal woman is suspected of procuring the girls, disposing them or using them for illegal purposes by deceiving their parents. Her act amounts to organised child trafficking and we are making further investigation.” She was produced in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Imphal West District.

Bound for abroad?

Some weeks ago, the Nagaland police had rounded up many girls while they were being taken to Chennai. It is learnt that after taking them there, the girls are sent to foreign countries for flesh trade and the like. Four girls from Tamenglong district of Manipur had also been sold to a night club in Malaysia. As they were sexually exploited, they fled the club and took shelter in the house of a pastor.

The Central government had ordered a high-level inquiry into this incident.

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