Jhalawar police bust inter-state trafficking gang selling minor girls to Mumbai dance bars; 10 rescued, 5 arrested
Deal papers said a girl's debt would be waived only on her suicide; Aadhaar ages were forged to show minors as adults
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Representative image.
Jaipur: Rajasthan Police have busted an inter-state human trafficking gang that allegedly lured minor girls from poor, debt-ridden families with the promise of a better life and sold them to agents in Mumbai and Nagpur, where they were pushed into dance bars and prostitution. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Jhalawar police has so far rescued 10 girls and arrested five accused, while one more person has been detained. Of the rescued girls, seven are minors and one is an adult, while documents establishing the actual age of the remaining two are being verified, police said.
Analysis of mobile phones and digital devices seized from the accused revealed deal documents with an inhuman condition: the debt on a girl’s family would be treated as waived only in the event of her suicide or death. According to police, brokers pocketed most of the money from each sale while the victims’ families were given only a token amount, and if a girl attempted to escape, her family was pressured to repay several times the sum along with all expenses incurred on her.
The operation began after Superintendent of Police Amit Kumar took note of a published news report on human trafficking and ordered a special probe under the Women Investigation Cell. ASI Madanlal and Head Constable Babulal, posted under the district’s Kanjar rehabilitation programme, gathered intelligence covertly from Kanjar settlements for months. The probe revealed that an organised network of local agents lured minor girls from families buried under debt with promises of good upbringing and employment, and later sold them for large sums to agents in Mumbai and Nagpur. The girls’ ages were fraudulently increased on Aadhaar cards and identity documents to show them as adults, police said.
The forged-documents racket came to light when four girls rescued by the Mumbai police were brought to Rajasthan to be handed over to their families and two of them were found to be minors despite documents describing them as adults. An SIT was then constituted under the supervision of Additional Superintendent of Police Bhagchandra and led by Jhalawar Circle Officer Harshraj Singh Khareda, and police teams were dispatched to different parts of the country.
A team led by Pidawa Circle Officer Pooja Nagar and DST in-charge Mohanlal, working with Mumbai police officers Joint CP Deepak Sakore, DCP Amit Kale and DCP Sachin Gunjal, rescued four girls in Mumbai and detained one accused. A team led by Ratlai SHO Lokesh Meena freed one minor girl from Dablana in Bundi with the help of DST Bundi, while another team led by Uniara Circle Officer Akanksha Kumari rescued one minor girl with the help of Tonk police.
Those arrested have been identified as Ramkanya (53), wife of Ramesh Kanjar, of Shankarpura in Bundi, described by police as the main woman agent; Bhimshankar alias Bhima (28), son of Ramesh Kanjar; Ankush Karmawat (26), son of Prakash Kanjar; Ramesh Kanjar (55), son of Laxman alias Pawalya, of Shankarpura; and Sunny (40), son of Makan alias Mukaniya Kanjar, of Sadar, Jhalawar. Banti, son of Bhopal Kanjar, of Shankarpura has been detained. The main accused booked in Mumbai under the PITA Act — Mohammad Hanif Byari, Anwar Alam Shaikh and Rajesh Dhawale — are yet to be arrested.
