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Rourkela police rescue girls meant for flesh trade

M I Khan in Bhubaneswar

The Railway Protection Special Force and the Government Railway Police, in a sensational breakthrough on Thursday, unearthed a racket of transporting young girls from the tribal areas of Orissa and bordering Bihar to Delhi and Bombay, it is suspected, to be inducted into the flesh trade.

In a joint operation, the RPSF and the GRP rescued 12 girls and nabbed two dalals (agents) at the Rourkela railway station while they were waiting to board trains for New Delhi and Bombay.

Sources in the Rourkela RPSF said the girls were unaware about their destination and were lured by the agents with the promise of jobs. All of them were aged between 16 and 22 years. "One group of six girls, going to Delhi, hail from Raibaga area of Sundergarh district while the rest belong to Simdega area in Bihar," sources added.

The agents claimed that the girls were going in search of work as they were facing acute poverty in their native places. However, police suspect that these girls were to be inducted into the flesh trade. One group was waiting to board the New Delhi-bound Utkal Express while the other was waiting to board the Bombay-bound Gitanjali Express .

It all began when Babulal Sahu of Salangabahal, near Raibaga, came to Rourkela station searching for his daughter Meera who had been missing since two days. "After a complaint was lodged, a police team launched a search at the station where they spotted some girls huddled in a corner. Babulal spotted his daughter among this group," police sources told rediff.com from Rourkela.

One of the agents, identified as Jyoti Toppo, informed the police that the girls were to be admitted in the 'Yubati Seva Sadan' at Punjabi Bagh in Delhi. They would be given training in various house keeping jobs for one month and then engaged in various houses on a monthly salary of Rs 1200 to Rs 1500. About 15 to 20 girls of Sundergarh district were already working in Delhi, she added.

But the police said that she could not offer satisfactory answers to several questions. Also, discrepancies in her explanations made the police suspicious.

Following this incident, the GRP and state police have intensified patrolling around Rourkela station. Two months back, Rourkela GRP had detained 13 girls from Sindega while they were about to board a Bombay-bound train. In a separate incident last May, a group of nine girls were arrested by the police from Sundergarh bus stand while on their way to Jharsuguda to board a Bombay-bound train.

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