Two ‘child traffickers’ nabbed from Tinsukia-Bangalore night train

 The duo were detained and the children, all from Bihar’s Araria, were sent to a government home temporarily

NGO functionaries said they received several tip-offs about this particular train used by traffickers with children from Bihar and Bengal.: Shutterstock

Snehamoy Chakraborty   |  TT  |  Bolpur(Birbhum)   |  21.06.21: The Birbhum wing of Childline NGO, working with district railway police, on Saturday night nabbed two adults allegedly trafficking four children from Bihar to Bangalore from a Tinsukia-Bangalore night train.

The train was halted with special permission at Rampurhat station around 9.30pm on Saturday, for 15 minutes as opposed to the usual three minutes, to stop the alleged trafficking bid, said a source. Though the team was acting on a tip-off about a much larger team, only two adults and four children could finally be rounded up.

The two adults were detained and the children, all from Bihar’s Araria, were sent to a government home temporarily.

NGO functionaries said they received several tip-offs about this particular train used by traffickers with children from Bihar and Bengal.

“The children are then taken to Bangalore and Chennai,” said an NGO official. “They are then engaged in child labour.”

On Saturday, the train was halted at Bolpur after Rampurhat, but no suspicious person could be tracked the second time.

The decision to halt the train one more time at Bolpur was based on a report from a BSF jawan who had inspected the train earlier at Bihar’s Kishanganj and reported about a suspicious group of about 10-15 persons, including children.

Childline works with Bachpan Bachao Andolan, another child rights organisation based in Delhi and founded by social reformer Kailash Satyarthi, to stop child trafficking.

“We are still searching for the rest of the adults, in coordination with authorities (police, railway personnel),” said Birbhum Childline coordinator Debashish Ghosh.

Deep Banerjee, Bengal coordinator of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan, added: “We are in touch with our Karnataka wing so the train is inspected on arrival there. We are hopeful of tracking all the children and adults.”

NGO functionaries also sought better supervised train routes to prevent child trafficking.