Acting on a tip off from Nepal-based NGO, Esther Benjamin Memorial Foundation, District Child Welfare Committee officials rescued the girls from Michael Job Orphanage yesterday.
Police said two foundation officials had arrived in the city following reports of 40 missing girls from Nepal, suspecting they were brought here as part of an alleged International trafficking racket.
Enquiries revealed they were admitted to the orphanage after being tagged as orphans though their parents are in Nepal. But the reason behind bringing them here was not known, they said.
However, P P Job, founder-chairman of the orphanage said some social welfare organisations had brought the girls here from Nepal during the Maoist problem there, wanting to give them education to better their life.
"Moreover, we do not have any mechanism to find out if the girls' parents or relatives are back in Nepal", he said.
Foundation sources said the move to rescue the girls followed instructions from child and social welfare ministry.
Child Welfare Committee officials said the children would be taken to Gorakhpur and lodged in the Committee's home and later sent back home after contacting their parents.
Meanwhile the Hindu Munnani sought a CBI inquiry into the functioning of the Orphanage.
Munnani General Secretary Kadeshwara Subramanian told reporters here that the government should take steps to seek the CBI enquiry since keeping girls of foreign origin in any orphanage is a serious offence.
