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Train passenger tweets over suspicion of trafficking, 26 girls rescued in swift action

Soon after this, 26 underage girls were rescued by the GRP and RPF from the Muzaffarpur-Bandra Awadh Express.

By Vikas
|
Google Oneindia News

Lucknow, July 7: A passenger on Awadh Express grew suspicious about the way 26 underage girls were behaving in his coach and tweeted about it. The passenger, Adarsh Srivastava, suspected that the girls could be the victims of human trafficking as he wrote in his tweet that the gorls were feeling insecure and some were even "crying".

In his tweet, Srivastava tagged Railway Ministry, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, MoS Railways Manoj Sinha and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

"I am traveling in Avadh express(19040). in s5. in my coach their are 25 girls all are juvenile some of them are crying and all feeling unsecure," his tweet said.

Adarsh Srivastava tweet

Soon after this, 26 underage girls were rescued by the GRP and RPF from the Muzaffarpur-Bandra Awadh Express. Reacting to the tweet, officials in Varanasi, as well as Lucknow, swung into action and within half an hour of the alert on social media site started investigating the matter, a railway spokesperson said.

The GRP at Gorakhpur coordinated with Childline along with the anti-trafficking unit of the police. Two RPF jawans in plainclothes boarded the train at Kaptanganj and escorted them to Gorakhpur.

"26 girls were found with two men, aged 22 and 55 years. All of them are from West Champaran in Bihar. The girls were being taken from Narkatikyaganj to Idgah. When questioned the girls were unable to answer anything convincingly, so they have been handed over to the child welfare committee. The girls are believed to be between the ages of 10 and 14 years. Their parents have been informed and the men have been taken into custody," a statement from RPF said.

Srivastava's alertness ought to be lauded. He not only tweeted about it, but also gave the exact station where the train was and the next approaching station which helped authorities to act swiftly.

OneIndia News with PTI inputs

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