Darj students who busted sex racket remain unsung heroes

Four SATC members with the Police and Marg team

Amitava Banerjee, HT, 23 Jun 2016, DARJEELING: The Hills and social media are abuzz with the news of students helping the police bust an international human trafficking racket which culminated in the arrest of the kingpin from Gurgaon, Haryana. However, the compulsion of having to keep the identity of these students under wraps for security reasons has emerged as a major concern for the Queen of the Hills.

Incidentally, four students helped Mankind in Action for Rural Growth (MARG) – an NGO – and the police unearth the racket and successfully netted three traffickers from the West Bengal Nepal border and Gagan Verma, the kingpin from his residence in DLF, Phase 2, Gurgaon in Haryana. Verma was produced in a Siliguri court on Tuesday and remanded in 14 days’ police custody.

Verma allegedly used to traffic and force girls into club dancing and flesh trade. He also used to forge documents like Aadhaar cards to traffic the girls.

Most of the girls were recruited and trafficked from Darjeeling, Sikkim and Nepal.

The racket was operational in the National Capital Region (NCR), thriving in Gurgaon and Mudrika area of Delhi.

“The students are the unsung heroes and they deserve a citizen’s felicitation. These regions are highly vulnerable and they have shown their presence of mind and acted bravely to end such a racket. It is sad that the identities of these heroes cannot be revealed,” said Raju Lama, a Darjeeling resident.

MARG has decided to felicitate the students in a private and closed ceremony. “The identities of these students cannot be revealed. The traffickers have very strong network. If in any way they come to know of their identities, the students will face life threats,” said Nirnay John, president of MARG.

In 2012, a Class 11 student helped bust a similar human trafficking racket and also saved the victim from being trafficked. Three men and a woman were arrested in that case.

“VV Thambi, the then DIG (CID), handed over a cash award of Rs 5,000 to the student. We had also felicitated her in a private closed ceremony,” added Chettri.

“The primary aim is to protect these children. Though everybody is eager to know about them, it is safer that they remain unsung heroes,” added Manju Tamang, former Child Welfare Committee (CWC) member of Darjeeling.

It all started with MARG receiving information from Maity Nepal, an NGO that Sunidhi, a 16-yearold girl, had gone missing from a remote village in Sidhupalchowk district of Nepal. She later became part of the racket.

MARG has 12 Students Against Trafficking Clubs (SATC) running successfully in the schools of Darjeeling district. They comprise students of Class 10, 11 and 12, who have been sensitised on human trafficking and work in this arena. The SATCs were alerted regarding the missing girl. Four of the students from a SATC were located by Sunidhi on a social network site and befriended her. They then posed as children wanting to run away from their homes and looking for jobs.

Sunidhi immediately offered them jobs. Sunidhi’s accomplices from New Delhi sent them fake Aadhaar cards and appointment letters. The police were informed and a trap was laid which netted traffickers Ugen Tshering Bhutia (23) of Jaldhaka in the Kalimpong sub-division and Srijana Rai (22) of Kumai in the Darjeeling district.

The following day Pranita Mukhia (22), originally a resident of Sipchu in Jalpaiguri district but was operating from Delhi, was arrested from Rajdhani Express. The trail then led to the arrest of Verma from Gurgaon. Sunidhi, however, gave the police a slip and is believed to have entered Nepal by road.