Cleaning staff at the Bangalore City railway station on Saturday helped child helpline volunteers rescue an eight-month-old baby boy from the custody of a man with disabilities, who had arrived from Mumbai and was allegedly found making use of the child for begging.
The man, who was identified as Devanand, admitted that he had found the baby boy at the Mumbai railway station three months ago and had decided to make use him for begging.
The incident came to light when the sweepers at platform no. 10 noticed the baby boy lying next to a beggar with disabilities and crying incessantly.
Based on the information, a team of volunteers from BOSCO childline rushed to the spot and took the child and the man to the BOSCO shelter at Chamarajapet and fed the child, and made the man to take bath.
The BOSCO counsellors tried to extract information from Devanand to ascertain whether it could be the case of a child trafficking racket, but he reportedly feigned ignorance and behaved as if he was mentally challenged, a staff member of BOSCO Mane said.
The child was later referred to the Child Welfare Committee and shifted to Shishu Mandira, while the man was provided with the address of the helpline and asked to report for any help, Executive Director of BOSCO Father P.S. George said.
It may be recalled that on April 7, a taxi driver at the City railway station helped the child helpline volunteers to bust a child trafficking racket, which led to the arrest of a 45-year-old ragpicker, who had abducted a 15-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy. The girl and the boy, who were allegedly forced to beg for him for the past one-and-half years, were freed from his captivity. The accused was charged under child trafficking and other sections while the boy and the girl have been referred to State home for boys and girls.
