Interstate child trafficking racket used social media to get customers, says CID

Gourab Neto, MP, 12 Nov 2024, Kolkata: The state’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) learnt that the interstate child trafficking racket that was busted on Sunday was using the social media platform to get customers. 

On Monday, during a press conference at the Bhabani Bhavan, Akhilesh Kumar Chaturvedi, Inspector general (IG) I, CID informed that to attract customers to buy the children, the accused persons used to post on social media. However, they didn’t use contact or discuss further on social media. 

Police claimed that if any person or couple used to show interest only then they used to ask for contact numbers. Later, the traffickers used to contact the person for further information and decided the price. 

Chaturvedi further mentioned that so far, a Bihar connection to the racket was found. However, not much details are available till now. As the place of the raid and the arrest falls under the jurisdiction of AJC Bose Botanical Garden, the case was registered there. On Monday, CID officially took over the probe of the case. 

“We are probing to find out the other persons involved in the racket. The arrested duo are being grilled to get further information,” said Chaturvedi. On Sunday morning, two persons, including a woman, were arrested from outside of the Shalimar Railway Station for child trafficking. 

A two-day old girl child was rescued. The raid was conducted after police spotted a social media post where the traffickers were trying to find customers for the baby girl. After spotting the post, a plan was made and a team was formed. 

Accordingly, police personnel, including the officer in-charge (OC) of the Anti Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) and Deputy Superintendent of Police, Special of the CID along with representatives of the Child Welfare Committee and NGO laid a trap. 

Two CID personnel disguised as a married couple and prospective buyers of the child got in touch with the traffickers and fixed up the spot for the meeting. 

The price for the baby was fixed at Rs 4 lakh. Accordingly, on Sunday, the CID team assisted by the CWC and the NGO reached the spot and met the traffickers. After a while, two accused identified as Manik Haldar and Mukul Sarkar were surrounded and subsequently arrested. 

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