Faridabad Police, working in tandem with the Haryana State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (HSCPCR), busted a human trafficking racket spread across the National Capital Region (NCR), including different parts of Haryana.
Two persons have been arrested and a dozen minor girls, most of them who are tribals from Jharkhand, have been rescued at the instance of the accused over the past few weeks.
The accused have been identified as Surender Mahto and Mahesh Mani Mishra. While Surender was arrested in February, Mahesh, a resident of Uttar Pradesh, was arrested in the past week.
The rescued girls, mostly aged between 12-15 years, have revealed horrific details of sexual abuse at the hands of their employers and traffickers. The girls told the counsellors that they were lured with prospects of jobs and sold for a few thousand rupees.
Anti-Human Trafficking and Missing Persons Cell, Faridabad, Inspector Satyender Rawal on Tuesday said that Mahesh was arrested at Siddharth Nagar in Uttar Pradesh a week ago and five minor girls were rescued from different parts of Haryana at his instance.
Tip-off received in Feb
HSCPCR member Balkrishan Goel, who has been closely monitoring the case, told The Hindu that the tip-off came in February this year when a minor girl called the Child Helpline saying that she was kept as a domestic help and was gang-raped. “The police, along with the HSCPCR, rescued the girl and arrested Surender. Eight more girls were rescued later at his instance, but his co-accused, Mahesh, remained at large,” said Mr. Goel.
Mr. Goel said that the minor girls were lured with a promise of job or bought for a few thousand rupees and kept as domestic helps in the NCR. He said that many of these girls were sold for ₹40,000-₹50,000, forced to work as bonded labourers and not paid wages in return for the work.
More in captivity
“Many of these girls are also sexually abused. One of the girls rescued from Gurugram last week revealed that she was raped by her employer’s driver,” said Mr. Goel.
He said that the mastermind of the racket was still at large and more than a hundred children could be rescued with his arrest.
Mr. Goel said that the commission had taken a strict view of the large-scale trafficking of minor girls to Haryana and the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and the police were directed in a meeting on Tuesday to carry out a special drive in Faridabad to identify minor girls working as domestic helps and rescue them.
