9 persons rescued while being trafficked to Andhra, 1 held

Berhampur (Odisha), Sept 8: Nine persons, including seven girls, have been rescued from a train while they were being allegedly trafficked to Andhra Pradesh following which one person was arrested, a GRP official said today.

While six of the girls were aged between 14 and 17 years, three others were adults, Childline (Berhampur) official Sudhir Sabat said. The nine persons who were from Ganjam and Puri districts of Odisha were rescued by the activists of Childline and the railway police from Puri-Tirupati Express here on Sunday, the GRP official said.

They were being trafficked to Bhimavaram in Andhra Pradesh for engaging them in a fish processing unit, he said.

A man was arrested by the GRP in this connection yesterday. He has been identified as Biranchi Rana of H Burudi village, the GRP official said.

The arrest was made on the basis of an FIR lodged by a Childline activist, he said. "We suspect the main trafficker to have escaped from the spot," Sabat said.

The rescued teenage girls were now lodged in the shelter house of the Childline here as per the direction of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), Ganjam.

"Medical test will be conducted and the girls will be handed over to their parents after consulting their respective district administrations for their proper rehabilitation," Sabat said.

On May 20, 2015, Childline activists along with the railway police had rescued 18 girls, including 15 minor girls from Puri-Tirupati Express train, while they were being trafficked to Samalkot and Bhimavaram in Andhra Pradesh.

Sabat said Berhampur railway station is one of the major transit points to traffick children from Ganjam, Gajapati and Kandhamal districts in Odisha.

In most of the cases, the traffickers lure the parents with decent job and proper accommodation.

PTI