BENGALURU: The city police, as on June 30, have registered 45 cases of human trafficking out of which 40 are registered under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act (ITPA), 1956. “The police have rescued 111 women victims and arrested 134 people, including 28 women, in these cases,” said an official source.
Recently, the police registered two cases in connection with the gangrape of a Bangladeshi woman in Ramamurthy Nagar and Jeevan Bima Nagar police stations under Sections 3, 4, 5, 6 of the (ITPA) and Sec 370, read with Sec 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for trafficking of persons. Twelve people have been arrested and chargesheeted in the case. Out of these, 11 accused and the rape survivor are Bangladeshi nationals.
“Following the investigation, the police have unearthed a well-organised network of traffickers, which include Bangladeshi and Indian nationals, who trap young girls from vulnerable backgrounds and traffic them on the pretext of providing them jobs,” said official sources. “The Ramamurthy Nagar case (of gangrape) is an eyeopener to international trafficking. The survivor was trafficked at a very young age of 16 from Bangladesh to Dubai and from there to India,” added the sources.
The victim has reportedly told the police that hundreds of young women from her country have been trafficked to India by the network. Last year, the city police had registered 93 cases of human trafficking under various sections of the IPC and Special and Local Laws (SLL). Of these, 77 cases were registered under ITPA and 245 female victims and two minor girls were rescued. The police had arrested 216 people for their alleged involvement in these cases, out of whom 172 were men and 44 women.