1 kid a week: UP traffickers' count; 10 nabbed, 3 rescued

A gang of child traffickers used to lift one child every week on an average and sell them for anything between Rs 2 and Rs 10 lakh in other States like Bihar, Jharkhand and Rajasthan.

This shocking information came to light when Uttar Pradesh Police busted the interstate gang that was active in Varanasi area. The cops arrested 10 gang members, including three women, and also rescued three toddlers, including a three-month-old infant, from their captivity.

"Based on the information extracted from the gang members, our team is now trying to recover the children lifted by them in the past and the rescued children who will be handed over to their respective parents," Varanasi police commissioner Ashok Mutha Jain was quoted by News18 as saying.

On a tip-off, Varanasi Police formed a team to look into the matter but it was not an easy task. The team began pursuing the child traffickers after some CCTV footage came to the fore in which one of the culprits was seen lifting a child from a pavement at Ramchandra Shukla Crossing in Ravindrapuri area of the city a week ago.

"Two members of the gang were spotted in the footage. We managed to track one of them identified as Santosh," Jain added. During interrogation, what Santosh revealed left the cops astounded. He admitted that there were nine more active gang members including three women.

Modus Operandi

Explaining their modus operandi, Jain said the gang members used to target the footpath dwellers and lift their children, whom they would sell to needy couples in other States. "Based on the information, we arrested nine other gang members who were staying at the rented accommodation in the area under Bhelupur police station," the police commissioner said.

The gang members were identified as Manish Jain from Rajasthan, Mahesh Rana from Jharkhand, Vinay Mishra from Shivdaspur, Shikha Devi from Varanasi, Sunita Devi from Jharkhand, Santosh Kumar Gupta from Shivdaspur, Yashoda Pandit from Jharkhand and Bhawarlal from Rajasthan.

The commissioner said four teams had left for Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Gujarat and different districts of Uttar Pradesh for the recovery of the children trafficked by the gang.