Over a year after about 600 children allegedly trafficked in Kerala were rescued, the CBI on Wednesday registered two cases against four people to unravel the entire racket on the directions of the Kerala High Court.
The agency registered the cases under Section 370 of the Indian Penal Code relating to alleged trafficking of 456 and 123 children in two incidents. The trafficked children were aged between five to 13 years. The victims hailed from Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Both the cases were initially registered by the Kerala Police.
“These children were intercepted on May 24, 2014 at Palakkad Railway Station on Patna-Ernakulum train No 16310 by RPF Palakkad, Kerala,” an agency spokesperson said.
These 579 victims from Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, claimed to be sent to two orphanages in Kerala, were nabbed by the Railway Protection Force at a railway station in the South Indian State after finding that many of them did not have any proper documents.
The issue had snowballed into a major controversy in the state with IUMl, the key partner in UDF Government, objected treating the incident as a case of child trafficking.
Taking a serious note of the incident, Kerala State Child Rights Protection Commission had directed the State Government to take necessary action to send the trafficked children to their respective homes.