Busting a major interstate human trafficking racket, a team from the Assam Police rescued 40 children and 2 adults belonging to Chirang district of the state's Bodoland Territorial region. The police also arrested the kingpin of the child trafficking racket, Krishna Jogi and his accomplice in connection with the case.
Spanning over a period of one month, the rescue and search operations were carried out by the Assam Police with assistance from its Sikkim counterpart and led by Assam Police Special Director General of Police, LR Bishnoi and Chirang Superintendent of Police Gaurav Upadhyay.
The trafficked children, aged between 7-10, were rescued by the police from the West Bengal and Sikkim border. Police said that the children were taken to Sikkim from three villages of the Chirang district of Assam on the pretext of providing education but were instead engaged in domestic work.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma congratulated the police on the success of the operation.
"Appreciation & congratulations to led by Special DGP @ lrbishnoiassam, Chirang SP Gaurav Upadhyay for having displayed exemplary professional skills in rescuing 40 children & 2 adults," Mr Sarma tweeted on Friday.
Chief Minister Sarma also interacted with the rescued children and said that the state government has decided to "either hand over the children to their parents or send them to residential schools as per the recommendations of the Child Welfare Committee".
"Assam government is firm in its resolve to not allow the heinous act of trafficking of women & children. We shall come down heavily on perpetrators of such crimes & hunt them down from whichever part of the world they are in. Assam police will be hawk-eyed," Mr Sarma tweeted after the interaction.
Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang also congratulated Assam police for the operation, saying he was happy that the Sikkim police could help the team.
"I want to congratulate Assam police. When they asked for help, we decided that we will find out each and every child. I am glad we did it," Mr Tamang said.
Cases of human trafficking have been on the rise in Assam. In the past two months, the state police have rescued 107 people including children who were trafficked to other parts of the country.
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