Amidst the recognition of the anti human trafficking bill by the civil society, there was an arrest made by the police in the steel city of odisha on the ground(s) of child trafficking. According to the senior police officer, 7 out of the 8 accused have been arrested and the 18 month child has been rescued.
The 7 identified accused in the cases are: Seema Agarwal (45), Sunita Agarwal (50), Nita Agarwal (25), Asha Devi (38), Sheela Gupta (38), Nikhil Agarwal (25) and Sumit Agarwal (21).
According to Rourkela Additional SP, Bikram Keshari Bhoi , “Eight out of seven involved in the crime have been arrested and their mobile phones have been seized. We found a lot of pictures of new born babies in their mobile phones, which indicate that they are involved in child trafficking.”
The trafficking was exposed when a 40-year-old woman, Seema Khuntia a resident of Timber Colony, Rourkela, filed a police complaint against two local women who abducted her granddaughter after promising to pay her money, but did not pay or show up at all.
According to the ASP, Seema Khuntia claimed she was promised Rs 40,000 for a girl and Rs 3 lakh for a boy.
There, two women and two men took over the baby’s custody and asked Seema to come to the nearby Janata Niwas Lane to take payment of Rs 40,000. But they fled with the baby without the payment prompting Seema to reach out to police.
The child trafficking racket involved, luring of poor families and convincing them to sell their children. Once the children where bought they were sold outside the state. The accused were earning upto Rs 4,00,000/- for a male baby and Rs. 1,00,000/- for a female baby.
The children were mostly sold to clients in jharkhand and chattisgarh.
Out of the 8 accused, Sangeeta agarwal is out of reach and yet to be arrested. According to recent updates, no complaints has been registered against seema khuntia who was lured by money, and her interests had been quite evident in selling her grand daughter.
