Ranchi cops rescue 10-year-old girl from sack

Source: telegraphindia.com

10-year-old homeless girl was dramatically rescued from a sack by Ranchi police near Albert Ekka Chowk on Sunday afternoon, with the youth carrying the gunny bag later confessing that he had kidnapped her with the intention to rape her.

Officer in-charge of Kotwali police station S.N. Mandal, under whom the area falls, said accused Sajan Ansari, of Nizam Nagar near Hindpiri, had drugged and kidnapped the girl in order to rape her.

Speaking to this paper, he said the girl was sitting on the roadside near Albert Ekka Chowk around 12.30pm with her maternal grandmother. The accused went up to them and offered them food mixed with intoxicants.

“Both the girl and the elderly woman fell unconscious. Ansari then put the girl in a big gunny bag and started walking away from the place. Some bystanders suspected he was carrying an animal in the sack. They raised an alarm and informed the police. We found the girl inside the sack,” said Mandal.

He added that the accused was booked under Sections 363 (kidnapping any person from lawful guardianship) and 370 (trafficking) of the IPC. The man was also forwarded to Birsa Munda Central Jail.

“During questioning, he confessed that he wanted to rape her and so he kidnapped her. He admitted he could have murdered her also after the rape,” said Mandal.

Mandal added Ansari’s criminal background, if any, was being investigated.

That a girl could be bundled into a sack in broad daylight from Albert Ekka Chowk could be an indicator of how vulnerable children are in the capital. Albert Ekka Chowk in the heart of the capital always remains crowded. But being a rainy Sunday, this afternoon happened to be a tad deserted.

Later, the girl was taken to the police station and given food and water. She said she was the eldest of the two daughters of her widowed mother and they used to live near Sujata Chowk in a slum. But, after their makeshift home collapsed, the family is homeless. She said she studied only up to Class I.

Asked about Ansari, she said she didn’t know who he was. “He came to us and gave us food. We were hungry so we had it. I want to go to my mother and sister. I don’t know where they are,” the little girl said.

40000 Bihar children missing, says Amod Kanth

PATNA: The magnitude of human trafficking in Bihar is alarming as about 35,000 to 40,000 children from the state were missing and nobody knew about their whereabouts, said former Delhi police commissioner Amod Kanth. There was no human development indicator in Bihar, resulting in the frequent use of child labour and violation of law dealing with it, he said.

Speaking on the first day of the three-day seminar on ‘Training of Master trainers: To combat human trafficking’, organized jointly by the crime investigation department (CID) of Bihar police and Save the Children, a civil society organization, here on Monday, Kanth stressed the need to redefine human trafficking as the present definition did not deal with the issue in its entirety. The Central government was working on a new manual to make it clear, he said, adding that the Immoral Trafficking Act discussed only about commercialization of sex and the Juvenile Justice Act talked only about children between 6 and 8 years of age.
Throwing light on the complexity of the issue, Kanth said human trafficking was related not only to prostitution but also with forced marriage, child sex and organ transplant. He said the present definition was itself so complex that it was creating problem in tackling the real issue.

Addressing the inaugural function, DGP Abhayanand said human trafficking was the worst form of rights violation and reiterated the Bihar police commitment to eliminate this evil from the state.

The DGP asked police officials to behave properly with victims of human trafficking, be alert about any information in this regard and take cognisance on priority basis.

Speaking on ‘Coordination: Police, community and civil society organization’, member of Bihar Public Service Commission and retired IPS officer, Rajyabardhan Sharma, said the local police should take the media help in busting the gangs involved in human trafficking. He, however, felt the media was not giving proper space to such serious issues.

State programme coordinator of Save the Children, Nitu Prasad, said the victims needed support as kids took to crime because of lack of awareness about law.

ADG (CID) A S Nimbran, IG Arbind Pandey and DIG Kamal Kishore were also present on the occasion.