Human Trafficking Gang Busted In UP; Five Held

A human trafficking racket was busted and, five people were arrested while a woman held by them was freed in the Nanpara area, police said on Tuesday.

Bahraich Senior Superintendent of Police Keshav Choudhary said a joint operation was launched on Monday evening by the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and the Uttar Pradesh Police with the help of an NGO after learning about the activities of the gang.

He said the team arrested four women -- Sudha, Usha Devi, Lakshmi and Kusuma -- and one man Ramdal Yadav during the operation. The woman rescued from the gang is a 23-year-old widow of Bahraich, said the SSP, adding she was handed over to her family members. Choudhary said the arrested women admitted during interrogation their involvement in human trafficking in the past as well.

Hassan Firoz, who works as a child protection officer with a local NGO that is working against human trafficking, said, "Our NGO had received information that a gang of human smugglers is active on the Indo-Nepal border. The members of the gang are marrying widows and poor women from neighbouring Nepal in India. They smuggle and sell them in metros as well as in Gulf countries on the pretext of marriage. The accused were trying to sell the widow from Bahraich as well."

The NGO had informed the anti-human trafficking unit of the SSB and the local police officers regarding the activities of the gang, he said. Acting on the information, an operation was conducted by the police and the SSB, police said.

On Sunday, an NGO member posed as a customer and contacted the women members of the gang. The member made a deal with them to “buy” the widow for Rs 70,000, they said.

On Monday, the gang members were caught when they reached a pre-determined spot to hand over the widow for cash to the NGO worker posing as a customer, police said. All the accused have been sent to jail, they said.

With PTI inputs.