Twenty-one more children were rescued when the train reached Ranchi. (File)
More than 100 children, most of them aged between six and eighteen years, were rescued from a train in separate raids at Bokaro and Ranchi stations in Jharkhand when they were allegedly being taken to Khamman district of Telangana, officials said on Friday. The children were in Dhanbad-Alappuzha Express. The following information that a large group of children boarded the train from Dhanbad Thursday morning, the Child Welfare Committees (CWC) of Bokaro, along with railway police and Balidih police teams, rescued 84 children when the train reached Bokaro in the afternoon. Four people who were accompanying them were detained for questioning. Twenty-one more children were rescued when the train reached Ranchi.
CWCs of Bokaro and Ranchi have decided to hand them over to CWC in Jamtara, as most of them are from that district, to be sent to their homes after verification.
Bokaro CWC chairperson Dr Vinay Friday said, “We have recommended registration of FIR against the four people who were accompanying the children.”
A Bokaro police officer said of the four detained, three claimed to be madarsa teachers in Telangana and the fourth said he is a cook. “They could not provide any document about the authority they have from parents of the children,” the officer said. The Bokaro SP couldn’t be contacted for a comment.