A gang was busted in Madhya Pradesh’s Sehore district by the police, which was involved in human trafficking. The team used to kidnap children and sell them off, said officials. In total 13 people have been arrested in the case, including women.
The gang was busted following the rescue of a 7-year-old girl who had been kidnapped from Ichhawar on February 12. The girl was taken away in a white car from Dundlava village, the police had said.
According to officials the kidnappers used to click pictures of the young girls, aged between 7 to 12 yaers and send them to brokers. The brokers then used to approve the girls and thereafter negotiations began. The gang used to charge anything between Rs 2 to Rs 5 lakh per girl.
According to the Sehore Police the gang had links with people in red light areas in Mumbai and other red light areas in the country. Some NGOs are said to have told police personnel that the girls were administered drugs to boost their puberty. The Sehore Police however have not confirmed this drugs theory of the NGO’s and said that investigations were still going on.
The Sehore SP Mayank Awasthi said that they have sent letters to all district headquarters to give details about girls missing from the area. He said that several teams have been formed and a multi-pronged enquiry has been launched in the case. The perpetrators were traced to Shivpuri district in the state. Following the arrest, while 1 girl was rescued, it unveiled the sinister modus operandi of the gang. The police discovered a well-oiled human trafficking network.
The police revealed that the gang used to kidnap young girls and sell them for prostitution. One of the accused Dayaram was in fact planning to sell his own niece. The man’s brother had died and his sister-in-law had remarried. Dayaram saw this as an opportunity to use his niece to make money. The police also found photographs of young girls in his phone.
The link to Mumbai was uncovered with the arrest of a second accused, Kiran who has previously stayed in the city. Later with the arrest of Kiran’s sister Vandana and her husband Anuj, the links to Mumbai were clearer. Investigations revealed that two of Vandana’s sisters worked in bars in Mumbai.