Four arrested for kidnapping, forcing children to beg in Gadag

Upparpete police have arrested four persons on the charges of kidnapping children and forcing them to beg in Gadag.

All the arrested persons—Vanishree, Yellamma, Kumaravva and Jadav—are natives of Gadag district in North Karnataka. They used to kidnap children from different places in the state and take them to Gadag for begging. The police got to know about this gang after one of the children they had abducted managed to escape from their clutches and reached a juvenile home.

In August 2008, Yellamma had abducted Ashwini, who was then three year old, from Majestic. She kidnapped the girl when she had come with her parents to visit Annamma temple near Majestic.

Her father is a businessman and mother is a homemaker. They are residents of Koramangala. They had filed a missing complaint with Upparpete police. The kidnappers had taken Ashwini to Gadag, where they kept her for three years.

The kidnappers had sold Ashwini for Rs10,000 to a rice-mill owner in Davanagere district six months after she was kidnapped. However, she was returned to Yellamma.

In July this year, when Ashwini was left on a street for begging, local people found out her plight and took her to an NGO in Gadag. From there, she was brought to CWC in Bangalore.
About 200 children who were rescued recently were lodged in juvenile home, where Ashwini’s parents traced her.
By building on the leads Ashwini provided, the police nabbed the gang. Yellamma is the wife of Jadav while Kumaravva is his sister. The police said they were interrogating the four to find out if
more people are part of their gang.