Howrah kids traced in Bangalore

KOLKATA: Two children, among the 14 toddlers who had gone missing from Pilkhana slum in Howrah between 2007 and 2008, were traced in Bangalore, stuck in a begging racket. In a three-week-long raid against the begging mafias in the IT city, police rescued more than 300 kids, including 120 infants, who were forced to beg on the streets by the racketeers.
Between mid 2007 and August 2008, 14 kids aged between two years to seven years had gone missing from Pilkhana slum. The children’s parents had lodged complaints with Golabari police station. But in past five years neither Howrah district police nor the CID could find a single lead to track the missing kids, said Sudip Das, a resident of Golabari who took up the issue to all quarters of the state administration.
In second week of December, in joint raid by Bangalore police, Karnataka’s child welfare department and a few NGOs, more than 300 kids were rescued from different parts of the city. Probe revealed that a powerful racket of begging mafias was behind the kids who buy or traffic kids from different parts of the country . “They used to drug them. Mostly, they are given sleeping pills but often the racketeers also use narcotic injections on the babies,” said an NGO worker.
Soon after busting the racket, Sudip Das took initiative and contacted Bangalore police who sent photographs of rescued children to Howrah police commissioner. From the photographs, relatives of the missing children identified two kids as Seikh Afsar and Shoeb Akhter. After initial identification Sudip reached Bangalore along with Soyeb’s mother and grandmother.
On Monday they will meet the magistrate to submit their petition demanding custody of their son. P Mohanty, Joint Commissioner (Crime), Bangalore police, confirmed that around 50 racketeers have been arrested.Howrah Police commissioner Ajey Ranade said that a police team has been sent to Bangalore.