PATNA: On Monday evening, the Dhanbad unit of Rail Police Force (RPF) busted one of the inter-state gangs of child litter-cum-sellers from an express train under the Dhaband division of the East Central Railway zone.
A 25-year-old child lifter-cum-seller, identified as Anju Giri from Telangana's Timmapur district was caught red-handed by co-passengers while he was lifting a baby of a woman passenger in the 12988 Dn Ajmer-Sealdah express.
He was thrashed and handed over to the Dhanbad RPF post.
According to IG of RPF at ECR headquarters, Ravindra Verma, the accused on being interrogated disclosed that his other three accomplices were also arriving by 13152-Jammu-Kolkata Express.
"A joint team of RPF and GRP was pressed into action soon after the arrival of that train at Dhanbad and three other child-lifters, identified as Anil Vaidha (25), Hanif Khan (30), and Bahra (40), all residents of Bihar's Gaya district, were arrested", Verma said.
Disclosing details of the gang's modus-operandi, the cops said that each of the arrested said that babies lifted from different trains were sold to human traffickers across the country.
Quoting details of their disclosures, an RPF cop said that the former used to get Rs 20000 to Rs 50000 on per baby from the traffickers.
Sources said gangs of child-lifters travel from South India to North India via Bihar, Jharkhand, UP, Delhi, to Kolkata and Assam sides by trains masquerading as passengers.
"I have directed the SHO of Dhanbad RPF to request the GRP at Dhaband to carry on investigation into it further to eliminate the entire networks of such inter-state gang of child-lifters", Verma said.
He said that an FIR has been lodged in the GRP Police Station under sections 363-A,371,373/34 of IPC.