7 ‘human-traffickers’ arrested near Indo-Nepal border, 2 girls rescued

Motihari: Seven persons, including two women, of an alleged inter-state human-trafficking gang were arrested near the Indo-Nepal border on Sunday. Two teenaged Nepali girls were also rescued during the incident.
The accused have been identified as Sujit Kumar Yadav and Dinesh Kumar, both residents of Nepal, Santosh Ram, a resident of Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, Jitendra Yadav, Rajesh Kumar, Sugandhi Devi and Asha Devi, all residents of Chhapra. All of them have been remanded to judicial custody.
The police carried out the joint operation with the help of the anti-human trafficking team of SSB, Swaksh Raxaul and Prayash Juvenile Aid Centre members.
According to the police, the traffickers were trying to take the girls from Nepal to Kushinagar in an SUV when they were stopped near the BATA roundabout in Raxaul. The car, five mobiles and four Aadhar cards have been seized in the matter, SP Swarn Prabhat said.
The two girls were residents of Rautahat and Bara in Nepal, he said, adding, "On interrogation, the girls in their statement revealed to the police that Dinesh Kumar and Sanjit Kumar Yadav of Rautahat asked them to participate in a Lakshmi puja in Chhapra for a day and they assured that they would pay them Rs 15,000."
"They made a video of these girls and sent it to another person. Both knew that they would go to Chhapra," the SP said, adding that further investigations are going on to identify other persons involved in the inter-state racket.
Both girls were produced in court and have been sent to govt-run Balika-Grih in Motihari.