Sleuths of Shashstra Seema Bal (SSB) manning Indo-Nepal border in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, intercepted four members of a gang engaged in human trafficking and rescued 18 Nepalese children from their custody late on Sunday night. The victims were later handed over to local Non-Government Organisation in Bahraich, who would ensure their return to their families in Nepal.
The accused were handed over to Rupaideeha police for quizzing to extract information about other children who might have been already trafficked to different parts of the country.
Giving details of the breakthrough to media persons in Bahraich on Monday, Deputy Commandant of SSB, Jai Prakash revealed that a team was patrolling the Indo-Nepal border on Sundaynight when they learnt about some children being trafficked to India from Nepal by a gang.
An alert was soon sounded along Indo-Nepal border in Rupaideeha, and the SSB team spotted four suspicious persons carrying 18 children between 12 and 14 years, entering into Indian territory. All four accused were immediately taken into custody.
The SSB official said that the accused were taken to a police station where they identified themsleves as Kamal Gautam, Surat Singh, Sant Bahadur and Ahmad Hussain. During sustained grilled, the accused confessed to trafficking the children from Nepal. They also revealed that they were taking a dozen of them to Shimla while the remaining six were to be taken to Mumbai.