BHUBANESWAR: Volunteers of Bhubaneswar Childline rescued three minors from the city railway station while they were being trafficked to Chennai on Tuesday evening.
The minors, belonging to Jharkhand, were being taken to Chennai for engaging them in brick kilns. Two traffickers have been arrested by the Government Railway Police (GRP).
Interestingly, an hour after they were rescued, the volunteers spotted three more children who were loitering on the platform. On inquiring, it was found that these children, native of Gop district, had been engaged at an ice-cream factory at Chhatrapur for the past one month.
They were reportedly held captive, tortured and not paid remuneration for their work by the factory owner. The minors managed to flee from the factory premises and boarded a train to Capital on Monday.
In a similar incident, Khurda district administration rescued 15 children who were employed in a biscuit factory at Jatni. The minors have been produced before Khurda Child Welfare Committee and sent to a shelter home.
The police would soon initiate criminal proceedings in these cases on the basis of the statement of the minors, sources said.