Ten children from Bihar rescued from clutches of human trafficking gang at Vijayawada railway station

The boys were being taken to Bengaluru to be engaged as factory workers, say police

In a joint raid, the Government Railway Police (GRP) and the Railway Protection Force (RPF) rescued ten minor boys, who were reportedly being trafficked to Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Acting on a tip-off, GRP and RPF officials, along with Childline NGO, checked the bogies on the 15228 Muzafarpur Junction- Yesvantpur Junction express and found the minor boys.

The raid was conducted under the supervision of Superintendent of Railway Police, Vijayawada, Vishal Gunni and Deputy Superintendent Nagaraja Reddy. The children were all aged below 15 and hailed from Bihar. They arrested a man named Amit Gheri, said GRP Circle Inspector R. Srinivas.

A case under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986. Trafficking in Persons (Prevention, Care and Rehabilitation) Act, 2021, and an investigation is on, said RPF CI Chandrashekar Reddy.

“We are trying to find out in which factories the accused planned to engage the children for work and whether he had trafficked other children in the past,” Mr. Srinivas told The Hindu.