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FIR filed in Chaibasa police station over child trafficking case
The incident first came to the fore on December 7 after two trafficked minors managed to flee from captivity and forced labour and returned to Chaibasa. They revealed that 27 children from West Singhbhum were allegedly kept as bonded labour at the Shree Namo Buddha Bouddha Dharma Dhyan and Teaching Centre, officials said.
Chaibasa Mufassil police on Wednesday registered an FIR in a child trafficking case after four more minor boys returned from Nepal, where 27 children from West Singhbhum were allegedly trafficked and held as bonded labour, officials said on Wednesday.
The incident first came to the fore on December 7 after two trafficked minors managed to flee from captivity and forced labour and returned to Chaibasa. They revealed that 27 children from West Singhbhum were allegedly kept as bonded labour at the Shree Namo Buddha Bouddha Dharma Dhyan and Teaching Centre, officials said.
“Three of the four minors returning today from Nepal were from Rangamati village under Pandavir panchayat under the Chaibasa Mufassil PS, and the fourth one hailed from Saitwa village. Two other minors had somehow returned to Rangamati village on December 7. We have started the process of bringing back six more minor children from Rangamati village in Nepal. An FIR has been registered for human trafficking based on complaints lodged by the families of the children. Police are seriously investigating the case to bust the entire chain and network of sending children from the district to Nepal,” Bahman Tuti, Chaibasa (Sadar) sub-divisional police officer (SDPO), told the media on Wednesday.
“The Chaibasa (Sadar) SDO, Sandip Anurag Topno, and SDPO Bahman Tuti have been entrusted with the responsibility for a comprehensive investigation into the matter. The administration is in touch with the Nepal police and the immigration department to bring back all 27 minors from Nepal. Police have been asked to register an FIR and take strong action against the accused,” Chandan Kumar, West Singhbhum district deputy commissioner (DC), told the media.
According to the officials, all the children are in the 10–14-year age group.
“The children who have managed to flee and have returned told us that their heads were shaven as soon as they reached the teaching centre in Nepal, and they were made to do physical labour at a temple-like place. They said they were promised good education and jobs, but there was no sign of any education,” officials said.
“The village Munda, Shriram Jinko, had sent their children to Nepal on November 11, promising that they would study there up to the postgraduate (PG) level and would be recruited in lucrative jobs thereafter. Narayan Kandeyang and Basil Hembram were the mediators who took the children to Nepal. But the children were held in captivity there and forced to do hard physical labour daily. When the village Munda was contacted for bringing the children back, he and the mediators demanded money,” the aggrieved parents alleged in their complaint.
Earlier, news of 11 children being taken to Nepal from Tabligo village had come to the fore, and now complaints of children being taken from the Jagannathpur and Sonua blocks of the district to Kathmandu in Nepal are also emerging.
It may be noted here that human, women, and child trafficking have been a major area of concern for Jharkhand, with 78 cases of human trafficking registered in the state in 2023–24. A total of 282 women, girls, and children fell prey to trafficking in these cases, of which the state police rescued 257 victims, including 173 children and 84 women and girls.
