Paradip, August 10: A person was today arrested on the charge of child trafficking for attempting to take 13 minors from Orissa”s Jagatsinghpur district to Mumbai for engaging them as bonded labourers. The accused has been identified as Hemanta Barik of Bilaspur village in Patkura area of Kendrapara district.
Barik was allegedly carrying the children in an autorickshaw to board a bus at Tirtol. On his way to the railway station at Cuttack he came under the notice of some locals who informed the police.
On interrogation, Barik reportedly confessed that he was taking the minor children aged between 12 and 14 years to use them as bonded labourers in Mumbai. All the children belonged to poor families in Erasama and Balithua areas of Jagatsinghpur district.
Their parents had been given assurance that the children would earn handsome money in future once they moved out of their villages.
-PTI