Human trafficking syndicate busted, 3 arrested

In a major breakthrough, the Delhi Police on Saturday has busted a human trafficking syndicate which was being run in capital. Police has arrested three people including a woman and rescued three minor girls , one of them was kidnapped last year from Geeta colony area.

Senior officers said that the gang used to target minor girls places like inter-State bus terminals, railway stations and other busy places.

According to senior officers, it was in March last year when a complaint was received at Police Station Geeta Colony reporting kidnapping of a 14-year-old girl. DCP Shahadra, Nupur Prasad said, inFebruary this year, father of the missing girl received a missed call on his phone.

"Since technical surveillance had been mounted on his phone, the father got suspicious and dialed the number back. On this, he was asked by the people on the other side to not to call again on said number. He then rushed to the police and reported a matter. The location of the number was traced and the identified location was raided. It was during the raid, the girl who had been missing for over a year now, was recovered," Prasad said.

During further investigation, when she was produced before the Child Welfare Committee and her statement was recorded, it was found that she was sold for Rs4 lakhs to a 32-year-old man identified as Neeraj, for marriage. On this, a case was registered under IPC sections366A, 370, 376, 34 and 4 POCSO Act was registered.

"During probe, accused Neeraj, a resident of Dadri District, was arrested and based on his instance, three others, Anuj (31), his wifeof Anuj (25) and Babloo (31)were also arrested. During the arrests of accused, Anuj and his wife, two other minor girls were also recovered from their house. In this regard, another case was registered against them," the DCP said.

The modus operandi of the gang is that one person used to search for the innocent victims/girls of minor age at the Railway Stations and Bus Terminals of Delhi and NCR. After kidnapping of minor girl, they took the victims to the house of Anuj where the victims were kept. After that, they tried to sell off them to perspective buyers.

During interrogation, it came to notice that there are four more such victims. In this regard, a team has been constituted to rescue them and to arrest of further accused which is on progress, the officer said.