In a shocking trend for children below 18 years of age in Odisha, the State witnessed an unprecedented rise in child kidnapping and abduction cases last year. The rate in 2014 looks disturbing as every day the State police registered around three cases from mere one case every day in 2013. More or less, even the State capital is not immune to this trend. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2014 data shows a decline in child kidnapping and abduction cases in States like Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
The data available with the State police reveals registering of a whopping 831 cases of child kidnapping and abductions in 2014. Though the cases are up by two-and-a- half times compared to 2013, disturbing fact is such a sharp rise took during last two years as only 96 cases were registered in 2012. Significantly, most kidnappings or abductions here are by fraud than by force, reveals an NCRB analysis.
In this backdrop, the task of State police has become onerous as in such cases either parents, close relatives or family friends are involved in the racket and police could sniff of any wrong-doing quite late. This not only affects the retrieval rate but also conviction rate too, explained ADGP Crime BK Sharma. Incidentally, the conviction of people chargesheeted under Section 366-373 looks dismal in Odisha. When over 236 were chargesheeted in 2013 only three got convicted and this is not an aberration as 2012 saw none convicted from 83 chargesheeted.
However, child rights activist Ranjan Mohanty attributes poor conviction rate to shoddy investigation by the concerned police officials as generally children kidnapped belong to poorest strata in the society. Though there is some truth in the argument as at times NHRC/OHRC has intervened to see police register cases, fact is when close relatives of children are involved some patch-up later could influence the evidence gathering activities of police required for logical conviction.
If data are any indication, then kidnappings and abductions of children are not happening in tribal hamlets of the State. Baleswar tops the dubious list followed by industrial town Angul. Coastal districts like Jagatsinghpur, Puri and Jajpur recorded higher burden. Tribal but mining-intensive districts like Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar also account for higher load of such cases in State. Bhubaneswar and towns like Brahmapur also record a sizeable child abduction cases as a whole. Kandhamal and Rayagada too have recorded a large number of such cases last year.
Reasons behind rise in kidnappings are not uniform across the State. While in some tribal districts and districts with high migrant labourer population children were taken by fraud to supplement cheap labour outside State, in coastal and border districts, like Baleswar, kidnappings look more sinister as kidnapped children were ploughed into sex, drug and organ trade. CBI is looking into the angle after surfacing of more porn clips floating on internet involving minors especially in the coastal districts. There seems to be an inter-State racket involving West Bengal and AP in this trade, an police official observed.