A bruised seven-year-old girl found wandering the streets of Arunachal Pradesh’s Itanagar earlier this month has led to the dismantling of an interstate child trafficking network, the state police said on Thursday, announcing the arrest of six persons.
Three more children were also rescued as part of the operation that led to the arrest of six persons, including two women, who sold their children to traffickers who moved the girls into local households as domestic workers.
Superintendent of police, Itanagar Capital Region, Jummar Basar, said the case came to light when a local resident spotted the girl roaming about the city’s F-Sector at 4:30am on February 7. The person took her to the police station, which sent her for treatment. She was also provided with psychological support at Ane’s Home, a one-stop support centre on the premises of the Itanagar Women Police Station.
“During counselling, the girl disclosed details that exposed a wider trafficking network, prompting registration of a case under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Child Labour Act and the Juvenile Justice Act,” Basar said.
The girl had been trafficked from Assam and employed as a domestic help by an Itanagar household, where she was allegedly assaulted. On the night of February 6, she escaped from the house.
Acting on leads that turned up during the investigation into this case, the police rescued three girls from different locations and arrested six persons for their alleged roles in trafficking, purchasing and exploiting minors.
Those arrested include Chide Doke (29) of F-Sector, Itanagar, Yanga Gongo Nalo (45) of Tapi village in Upper Subansiri, Marba Nalo (54) and Jumpi Boje Tsering (40) of Forest Colony, Aalo in West Siang, the police said.
Two other women, both 37, accused of selling their own minor children and facilitating trafficking, were not named by police.
Police said notices under Section 35(3) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), which empowers the police to summon suspects in a criminal investigation, have also been issued to three persons, including an Arunachal Pradesh Police constable who closed a missing person report for a boy in 2021.
The rescued children have been produced before the Child Welfare Committee and placed in shelter homes for care and rehabilitation.
Basar said two more children, including a boy who went missing in 2021 was still missing and warned people against engaging minors as domestic workers. The police officer, who also asked people to report cases of suspected trafficking, child labour or abuse, credited Women Police Station officer-in-charge Rina Sonam and her team, the Child Welfare Committee, medical authorities and the public for cracking the case.