Child trafficking gang busted in Uttarakhand, 4 held, toddler rescued

Dehradun: Uttarakhand Police on Monday busted a gang involved in child trafficking with the arrest of four people, including a woman, and rescued a two-year-old boy, officials said.

On January 2, Reena, a resident of Yamuna Colony, lodged a complaint with the police regarding the kidnapping of her two sons -- Akash (5) and Vikas (2), Dehradun Senior Superintendent of Police Ajay Singh said.

When the kidnappers got to know that the police were probing the matter, one of them dropped Akash at the gate of the Yamuna Colony, he said.

It was later revealed that Reena's cousin Rakesh (52) used to visit her house frequently and some people had seen him dropping off Akash at the colony gate on the evening of January 2, he said.

Both Rakesh, who works at Ordnance Factory here, and Reena are natives of Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor district.

The police found that Rakesh was close to Rahul who works with him at the factory and their mobile phones were put on surveillance, the SSP said.

During the course of investigation, involvement of Rahul's daughter Tania (20) in the kidnapping of the two children was also revealed, he said, adding that she had hid the two brothers with her.

The SSP said that when the father-daughter duo came to know about the police complaint, they asked Rakesh to drop Akash at the colony gate after which the three accused fled to Amroha, Uttar Pradesh to the house of Rahul's aunt.

The police managed to nab Rakesh and Tania, but Rahul went absconding.

During interrogation, the accused told police that they sold Vikas to a brother-sister duo, Priyanka (22) and Santy (25), in Dhampur for Rs 2 lakh, the officer said, adding that subsequently they were also arrested.

Priyanka and Santy disclosed that they had sold the child to a family living in Sarkathal Shivala in Dhampur. After this, the police approached that family and rescued the child, the SSP said.

Rakesh, during interrogation, also revealed that he had sold two of his own children, he said. The police are probing the matter.

The SSP has announced a reward of Rs 25,000 for the police team that recovered the child.