Brave School Children help Darjeeling Police Bust International Sex Racket

Kudos to a group of school children whose immense bravery recently helped to expose an international sex racket, leading to the arrest of the kingpin of the racket from Delhi and also a woman trafficker from Nepal.

Three traffickers have been arrested at the border of West Bengal and Nepal and a team of police rushed to Delhi to nab others involved in the racket. An NGO called Members of Mankind in Action for Rural Growth (MARG) also accompanied the police.

The alleged kingpin, Gagan Verma, was arrested from his residence in DLF Phase 2, Gurgaon on June 18. He allegedly trafficked a vast number of girls from the hills of Darjeeling, Sikkim, and Nepal. He also used to forge documents like Aadhaar cards to traffic girls who were then forced to dance in bars or indulge in prostitution.

The racket was operating in the National Capital Region, particularly in Gurgaon and Mudrika area of Delhi. Verma’s aide Sunni Tamang initially gave police a slip and tried to flee to Nepal by road. However, he was apprehended on June 18 at the Nepal-West Bengal border as MARG informed its partner NGO, Maiti Nepal.

The whole operation to nab the racketeers began after MARG received a lead from Maiti Nepal about a 15-year-old girl, who went missing from a remote village in Sidhupalchowk district of Nepal. The NGO has 12 Students Against Trafficking Clubs (SATC) running successfully in Darjeeling schools, where students are sensitised on human trafficking issue.

MARG had alerted the SATC regarding the missing girl. Four of SATC girls managed to trace the missing girl on social networking site and befriended her. Hindustan Times reported that the students pretended to be residents of Nepal who were looking for jobs. The 15-year-old girl then introduced the SATC members to her “friend” in Delhi, who offered them jobs with a salary of Rs 15,000. They would have to work as bar dancers and entertain guests in Delhi.

President of MARG, Nirnay John Chettri revealed that the SATC students asked the girl to send someone to receive them in Panitanki, located on the Indo-Nepal border. They stated that they would run away from their homes. A man and a woman arrived at the point in Panitanki, where the police arrested them. The duo was identified as Ugen Tshering Bhutia, 43, of Jaldhaka in Kalimpong sub-division and Srijana Rai, 22, of Kumai in Darjeeling district.

Another woman called Pranita Mukhia was caught from Jalpaiguri district on June 9.

The Logical Indian appreciates the bravery of the SATC girls for taking the risk and helping police to protect the lives of many others from getting trafficked.