Acting on a tip-off about children being trafficked from West Bengal on a Punjab-bound train, officers and personnel of the Government Railway Police (GRP) raided a compartment of Karmabhoomi Express train and rescued 40 children in Moradabad railway station on Thursday morning.
All children were below 15 years of age and were deboarded from the train which originates from Jalpaiguri in West Bengal.
While it was suspected that the children were being trafficked, GRP Inspector
Sudheer Kumar said that the children were travelling with relatives but investigations were underway to establish the human trafficking angle with complicity of the relatives for to any reason.
The GRP officers also contacted their counterparts in West Bengal to verify the antecedent of the relatives as well as of the children and confirm whether they were being taken to far off Punjab, as claimed by the kin, to work in hotels, restaurants, shops, dhabas etc or for some other illegal work.