BENGALURU: In a case of international child trafficking that came to light at the Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna Railway Station on Thursday afternoon, a 15-year-old Nepali girl, who ran away from her husband’s house, has been rescued by a special unit of the Railway Protection Force (RPF).
The teenager had been sold to a 40-year old married man in Bengaluru a month ago and he forcibly married her.
The girl was found in a traumatised condition sitting alone on the floor of Platform 2 of the station and in tears around 2.30 pm. Members of Nanhe Farishte (Little Angels), a special unit created to save children from being trafficked at railway stations within Bengaluru, spotted her and took her into their custody.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, Senior Divisional Security Commissioner Debashmita Chattopadhyay Banerjee said the girl came to India just three months ago by trusting a cousin in Himachal Pradesh who promised to help her get a job.”However, it proved to be a case of totally misplaced trust. The cousin sold her a month ago in Himachal Pradesh for a few lakhs to a Bengaluru-based man, who was already married,” she said. The man forcibly married her and brought her to Bengaluru.
“She had somehow managed to escape from her house on Thursday afternoon and reach the railway station. The young girl was in a state of trauma. She neither knew the area she was residing in nor could give any details about the man who had bought her to the city,” Banerjee said.
“It is clear that she resides somewhere near the Majestic area as the girl came by foot to the railway station this afternoon,” Banerjee added.
The childline at the station was contacted and she has been handed over to the Child Welfare Committee. All possible steps to reunite the girl with her family in Nepal will be done, Banerjee said.