A special team of the Crime Branch will visit Jharkhand to collect evidence in the suspected child trafficking case.
The railway police had last month detained 589 children from Jharkhand, Bihar, and West Bengal headed for orphanages in northern Kerala at the Palakkad Junction railway station.
Apart from discussions with police officials, child rights commission members, and the individuals concerned at Ranchi, the team will visit the backward Gonda district. The majority of children hailed from this district.
The police team will leave for Jharkhand by Friday. The officials will try to directly interact with parents of the children.
Crime Branch DySP P. Sudhakaran Pillai said prime suspect Shakeel Ahmed would be taken to Jharkhand to collect evidence. Arrested along with nine others, Ahmed had allegedly conspired to bring the children to Kerala in two batches.
Employed in Thrissur for three years, Ahmed told police that his wife had been working at the Mukkom orphanage and it was he who initiated the process.
He also reportedly confessed to taking children to different orphanages in Kerala in the last three years.
The Crime Branch officials said they would visit Bihar and West Bengal as part of the probe.
