As many as 30 of the total 59 children from Bihar who were reportedly 'rescued' by officials of Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP) on suspicion that they were being trafficked from Bihar to Maharashtra for child labour, have been sent back to their home state on Friday. The move comes after a preliminary police probe revealed that there was no child trafficking involved, instead the children were being taken to madrassas in Sangli and Pune with their parents' consent. The children were lodged at a Nashik shelter home. The first batch of 29 children were sent back to Bihar on Tuesday from Bhusawal. The Indian Express on Tuesday reported how the 59 children from Bihar's Araria district were put in a shelter home after RPF received information that they were being trafficked. Five men associated with a madrasa who were travelling with the children were arrested by GRP on May 30 on charges of alleged child trafficking. Sharad Jogdand, Inspector, Manmad GRP, said that on Friday morning 30 children were sent back to Bihar on 15647-Guwahati Express in the presence of police personnel, members of Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and district administration officials. "The children are mostly from Arariya district. They will be handed over to CWC officials in the district concerned in Bihar. Then CWC will further hand over the children to their families as per the process," said Jogdand. On May 30, acting on information that a bunch of children were allegedly being trafficked for child labour, officials of RPF searched the 01040 Up Danapur-Pune Express train at Bhusawal, where they found 29 children in coaches S-10 and S-11. The children were handed over to GRP, and Mohammed Anjur Alam Mohammed Syed Ali, 34, a maulana from Sangli, who was accompanying them, was arrested. The train was again searched when it reached Manmad station (Nashik), where the RPF 'rescued' 30 children from coaches S-1, S-2, S-10 and S-11 along with four men accompanying them — Saddam Hussain Siddiqui, 23, Noman Alam Siddiqui, 28, Ezaj Ziyabbul Siddiqui, 40, and Mohammed Shahnawaz Haroon, 22 — all from Bihar's Araria district. The RPF claimed that when inquired, the children and the five men said they were headed to Sangli and Pune, where the children were to be enrolled in madrasas. The RPF, however, said the five men could not furnish any documentary proof of parental consent. Subsequently, they were handed over to the GRP, who filed two FIRs against them under Sections 370 (buying or disposing of any person as slave) and 34 (criminal act done by several persons in furtherance of the common intention of all) of the Indian Penal Code. The GRP said that while there was no evidence yet of trafficking, the men accompanying the children could not provide proof that the children were travelling with the consent of their parents. While GRP and RPF initially accused the five maulanas of child trafficking and arrested them, parents of the children said they had sent them willingly. Advocate Niyaz Lodhi, representing the accused, claimed that GRP has erred in booking the men and sending the children to the shelter home. "They were supposed to first verify information and then make a case based on the cognizable material collected. But they first made the case, and then did the verification," Lodhi said. All five maulanas arrested by Bhusawala and Manmad GRPs in the case are currently in judicial custody facing a non-bailable case of human trafficking.
