By Express News Service
HYDERABAD: Four children were rescued from child traffickers running brothels in the temple town of Yadagirigutta, on Thursday. The action comes just 48 hours after 11 children were rescued and 8 traffickers were arrested from the very same place. The police also arrested six traffickers, including three women who allegedly procured the children through agents. The rescued children are 4, 5, 8 and 14 years of age. Police have also arrested a registered medical practicioner from the town for administering oxytocin to these children so that they attain early puberty.
A city-based doctor associated with this gang in administering hormone growth injections to the children is still absconding. The raids continued on Tuesday on different houses in Ganesh Nagar area of the town based on a tip-off. One of the girls told police that after the death of her mother a few years ago, she was brought to the house and since then, she was residing with her ‘uncle and aunt’. However, inquiries revealed that the girl was procured through an agent Kamsani Shankar, who picked up the girls from different parts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and sold to the brothels in the town for up to `2.50 lakh.
The traffickers had made elaborate arrangements. They made fake Aadhaar cards for the children and the accused arrested on Thursday was listed as the mother in the ID. They also allegedly educated the children. Further inquiries revealed that one Dr Kammagiri Narsimha, a town-based RMP who owns a private nursing home, had been administering oxytocin injections to the children.Police raided the nursing home and found patients waiting to get tubectomy surgery.
“Though he is an RMP, he had been performing surgeries like tubectomy, hernia operations, C- sections on the patients for delivery. He also admitted that he had been giving oxytocin injections to the children brought to him by the traffickers for early puberty,” said the DCP. DCP Yadadri E Ramachandra Reddy said the girls were sent to care home.
A struggle to stay alive
For hours altogether, the girls braved hunger, not knowing if anyone bothered about their existence. On other occasions, they sustained physical and verbal abuse. In the dead of night, often, they would wake up not realising their surroundings. Perhaps, yearning to go home and be in the midst of their family. But on the outside, a rosy picture was painted. Children were under the care and protection of their parents. The girls went to school everyday and came back home to do their homework. The recent raids
at brothel houses at Ganesh Nagar in Yadagirigutta has opened a can of worms. After their incredible escape, officials who counselled the girls are unable to gather much information.
Still under a lot of trauma, these girls are only able to recall bits and pieces from their past. They have been living amid sex workers for several years now. Some were bought from their parents or relatives and others probably kidnapped and trafficked. “The entire credit goes to one girl who managed to share her ordeal with someone who could inform the authorities,” said police, who said that until now, there was not even an iota of doubt that the traffickers had plans to push these girls into flesh trade and that too, after allegedly administering hormone injections to expedite puberty.
“If we ask for food we would be thrashed,” said an official quoting a rescued child. One of the arrested traffickers, Kamsani Kalyani, who had kept one girl in her house, had often thrashed the girl when the girl refused to do household chores. “Though the traffickers claimed the kids to be of their own, it was evident that they abused them when the girls complained of sickness or when they were not willing to go to school,” said an official.
