Tumkur: 31 minor girls, 11 women rescued from traffickers

Tumkur, Apr 26 (DHNS): Preventing what would have been years of tragedy for 31 minor girls and 11 women from Pavagad in Tumkur district, authorities have intercepted and successfully rescued them from being exploited, with some officials even fearing the existence of an intent to trade them off for commercial sex work in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.

In addiiton to the women, 16 boys and 21 other adults being transported to Coimbatore were also rescued on Monday.

In what is being described as the biggest anti-trafficking operation by the State authorities, the Pavagad police, using the intelligence gathered by a Bangalore-based NGO, Oasis, chased two vehicles, including a KSRTC bus, transporting the victims, before finally intercepting them at the Pavagad border.

A senior police officer confirmed to Deccan Herald that the movement of the victims was for exploitation and that a case had been registered, among others, under Section 370(A) read with 34 of the Indian Penal Code, which pertains to illegal trafficking.

Cover story

Most of the girls have said in their statements to the authorities that they did not know who was taking them to Coimbatore or which company they would be working for. On watching the visuals of the interviews, it appears that the girls were “trained” to say they were going to work at mills.

“We have established that it was a case of trafficking and have arrested five persons in this connection,” the official said.

According to the first information report, a copy of which is with Deccan Herald, Govindaraju from Tumkur, named the first accused, and four others, also from Tumkur, are the arrested.

Stating that the said Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) had shared intelligence on the movement of the victims during the (this) week with the Superintendent of Police, Tumkur, and the Pavagad police station, another official said they finally confirmed that the movement would happen on Monday.

Following this, a team of police officials, accompanied by several members from Oasis, the NGO, tracked two vehicles — a KSRTC bus (KA-06 F 846) and a Tata Sumo (TN-37 BU 6835) — which were transporting the victims.

“After a prolonged chase, we intercepted the vehicles  at about 5 pm near the Pavagad border and found that the victims were being transported against their will,” a police officer explained.

False ages

Initially, many girls had claimed wrong ages and only 14 accepted they were minors later — which the police and the members of Oasis believe is an indication that the victims were ‘trained’ by the people trafficking them.

Parvathi (name changed), one of the girls, first said: “I am in Class 10.” On telling her that the police would verify this with the school and check other documents, she hesitated and said, “I have passed Class 8... I am willing to work as my family needs money.”

While Parvathi was among the 13 others to admit their age, it was only on Wednesday, after the Child Welfare Committee members verified their documents and interviewed all of them, did it come to light that about 31 of the girls were minors.

Textile factory involved

Anita Kannaiah from Oasis said, “The Tamil Nadu vehicle that was being used to transport the victims belonged to Raj Kamal Textiles, while one of the persons taking the people there said they were also being ‘recruited’ for Anugraha Spinning Mills.”

Incidentally, a few months ago, the same NGO had tracked the movement of a group of girls to Tamil Nadu, but inaction from the local police had left the case unresolved.