Teenage girl trafficked to India for 'sacrifice' rescued

Kathmandu, Feb 3: A sixteen-year-old Nepali girl who was trafficked to India reportedly for 'human sacrifice' has been rescued.     

The girl was rescued from a place called Mangal bazaar Galli in New Delhi, India at the initiative of the Human Trafficking Investigation Bureau. She is under the protection of a civil society organization after the rescue.     

Organizing a press conference here today, the Bureau shared the information about the rescue. "It came to light that she had a meeting with a tantric guru where she was promised to be paid a large sum of money once the guru became happy. Before being trafficked to India, her weight, height, spots, tattoo on the body and menstruation were reportedly screened", Bureau Director, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Jeevan Kumar Shrestha said. He further shared her physical examination was undertaken twice, before and after being trafficked to India.     

According to the police, the convicts shared they found the adolescent girl in course of searching for the one with a 60 kg weight, at least 5.4 inches in height, no spots or tattoos on the body and non-menstruated status.     

He further shared, "As per the preliminary investigation, the convicts were found to have the plan to take the girl to the tantric guru in some days. They had made a plan to offer her for human sacrifice in the coming full-moon day".     

Director Shrestha clarified the girl however was not aware of the planned sacrifice. "We had intensified search and investigation into the incident for the past two months". The rescue was made possible by acting on a tip-off received two days ago.

The girl was taken to Kathmandu from her maternal uncle's home last December 3. She was held hostage in Kathmandu up to January 3. Police reported that the girl was trafficked to New Delhi-based Pahadgunj through the Nepal-India border checkpoint, Sunauli, on January 4. She was then taken to the gurus practising tantrums in three different places in India.     

The teenage girl had been residing in her maternal uncle's home due to souring relations between her mother and father. It has come to the revelation that her close friend and a woman were mobilized to persuade the girl.     

Director Shrestha informed that the police arrested six persons involved in the incident and took ahead the investigation process accordingly.     

According to the police data, 18 women and girls trafficked through different checkpoints were rescued from different countries during the period from January 15 to February 3 this year.     

In the last five years, 30 children were rescued from being trafficked in from different areas, police informed. A total of 443 persons including girl children, women and men were rescued from being trafficked. (RSS)