City police and government railway police along with the representatives of State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) on Sunday busted a human trafficking racket at Secunderabad Railway Station.
Police rescued 72 bonded labourers, including 14 minor who were all said to be brought to Hyderabad to work as bonded labourers.
Acording to police 14 minors were shifted to the State Home at Allwyn colony near Kukatpally, while the others were set free.
The children are said to be from Bihar, Assam, West Bengal and Odisha. “ We have cross-checked their identity and registered a case under the Human Trafficking Prevention Act and Juvenile Justice Act,” said S Ram Chandra, inspector, Gopalpuram Police.
“We released all above 18 years after verifying the details. For minors, we have collected the details like who had sent them or who were they supposed to meet in Hyderabad. We are verifying all the information,” the inspector said.
According to police based on information that a large contingent of bonded labourers was expected to arrive in the city in the Janmabhoomi Express from Visakhapatnam, acting on a tip of toe the city police kept an eye on the express which was scheduled to reach Secunderabad at 6.40 on Saturday evening but reached at 12.40 in the night.
“ We were not able to nab the agent. Some of these boys were brought for working at brick kilns, borewell works, carpet making industry etc,” added the inspector.
The group was split and seated in different bogies and each person claimed they were traveling alone. We could sense from their replies that they were trained to answer, police said