Police in hands with MARC rescue 3 girls of the state

IT News

Imphal, Aug 6,

State police have successfully rescued three girl of the state from being trafficked out of the state probably for utilizing in flesh trade.

A statement by Montu Ahanthem, Convenor, Wide Angle, The Manipur Alliance for Child Rights (MACR) in partnership with Child Rights and You (CRY) has extended its heartfelt gratitude to Manipur Police and all its member partner who took different roles and succeeded in rescuing three young girls hailing from Moreh, Tengnoupal District, Manipur.

It said, on 3rd August 2019, our Chandel MACR partner informed that 3 girls (Pinky age 16, Asha age 16 and Vandana age 19 [name changed]) from Moreh town were missing since early morning from their respective houses. After confirming the missing report by the MACR HQ, an alert was sounded and a special task force was formed which immediately contacted the OC Imphal West Ingocha for alerting the Anti Human Trafficking Unit stationed at the Airport.  A Missing Report was made by the parents of the two siblings at Moreh Police station at 10:30 AM with the help of our members. One of the constable at Moreh check post informed that they had seen the girls heading for Imphal, SP Dr. Ibomcha of Thoubal Police was also alerted so that they could intercept the girls on the way.

OC Ingocha inform that around 12:30 PM one of the girls were rescued from the booking counter at the airport and the other two from North AOC Bus ticket counter. They were then handed over to Special Juvenile Police Unit of Singjamei PS and kept at Child Friendly Police Station Lamphel under the supervision of Imphal West SP   Meghachandra.

Out of the three rescued girls, Vandana 19 years old was planning to go to Delhi as someone whom she befriended through Facebook had offered her in getting auditions for a TV Serial. Pinky aged 16 was the younger sister of Vandana who too wanted to follow her sister to work in the TV serial along with her friend Asha aged 16 who was married did not wanted to stay with her husband who was very senior to her. The two minor girls planned their travel by bus till Dimapur (Nagaland) and take the train for Delhi and Vandana was going by flight hoping to meet the two as soon as they reach Delhi.

The Moreh Police along with Child Line Thoubal arrived at Imphal and meet with MACR team at Child Friendly Police Station Lamphel and gave them counselling. In the evening around 7 pm they were released and handed over to Moreh Police personals, accompanied by the parents of Vandana & Pinky and the husband and mother of Ashawho had also come down to Imphal. The girls were later accommodated at the Ujjwala Home, Moreh and processed to be produced at Child Welfare Committee, Chandel, after the hearing, the CWC passed an order and handed over the children to their respective families.

MACR is looking into two angles from this incidence, whether it is a simple case of runway from home for pursuing better economical future or is it a big racket of Cyber criminals trapping young girls on Social Media with false promise and exploiting their innocence. This need to be further investigated by the concern Police official handling the case so that other children would not be trapped in a similar way.

Looking to the past incidence of trafficking there is a urgent need to adopt the draft ‘Plan of Action for Combating Child Trafficking in the state of Manipur’ which was submitted by the MCPCR to the Department of Social Welfare, Government of Manipur comprising preventive approach, rescue protocols, rehabilitation of Survivors, and coordination and convergence of all the line department and adopt the Draft ‘State policy for children 2018″ by the Sate Cabinet at the earliest, both the documents were prepared by MACR in consultation with CRY as it will help to resolve various child rights issues in the state of Manipur.

The incident has proven beyond doubts that the Manipur Police has once again proven its outstanding capacity to carry out  the rescue operation of the three children as and when calls for, so swiftly, despite pre engaged with their various assignments in coordination with various agencies working in the field of Child Rights.