One of the 34 traffickers of tribal kids operating in the slavery belt – some of the remotest and backward areas of Jharkhand – is Nirmal Mahto. He was arrested from Ranchi station on a train to Delhi with four minor girls in 2012. However, in 2013, when he was produced in court, the absence of a public prosecutor helped him secure bail. Since then he has been untraceable.
One of the 34 traffickers of tribal kids operating in the slavery belt – some of the remotest and backward areas of Jharkhand – is Nirmal Mahto. He was arrested from Ranchi station on a train to Delhi with four minor girls in 2012. However, in 2013, when he was produced in court, the absence of a public prosecutor helped him secure bail. Since then he has been untraceable.
Similarly, in yet another bizarre incident, the Delhi police raided the premises of several traffickers in Shakurpur on the night of December 25, 2012. Among those who were raided included two master traffickers in the police blacklist – Krishan Kumar Sahu and Manoranjan Sahu. While K K Sahu had human trafficking cases against him in Simdega and West Singhbhum, Manoranjan Sahu was being actively sought by anti-human trafficking unit in Khunti. 54 minor tribal girls and eight boys were found at their placement agencies in Delhi. The Delhi police and Ranchi CID rescued the kids and sent them home. The traffickers were not arrested nor was an FIR filed at the local police station in Delhi. The two of them are still at large.
Master trafficker Panna Lal Mahto has also revealed the name of a dubious godman by the name of Baba Bamdev. Baba Bamdev is a politically connected godman who is currently behind bars for raping his own rape victim again. He is considered a master trafficker operating in both Delhi and Ranchi in the guise of a godman. He was earlier arrested on rape charges by the Delhi police in 2011 but managed to get bail. Along with Mahto, he established an umbrella organisation for all of their fake placement agencies, titled National Adivasi Seva Sthan.
Bamdev, who even attended sittings of the Vidhan Sabha in tow with former Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MLA and known 'extortionist' Paulus Surin, has admitted to using Surin's clout to run his trafficking net in Khunti district. Panna Lal Mahto confesses to having formed a union of placement agencies along with Baba Bamdev, bringing Jharkhand traffickers under an umbrella organisation called the National Adivasi Seva Sthan. This organisation holds a massive gathering of domestic maids and placement agents in Delhi's Punjabi Bagh area on Christmas day every year. In photographs seized from Mahto's residence, many of Jharkhand's most wanted traffickers are seen in attendance along with hundreds of young tribal boys and girls from across Delhi.
Jharkhand's slave traders
Sundar Munda : Janakpuri-based agent. FIRs against him at PS Namkum, Ranchi. One of the most active traffickers in Ranchi, Gumla and Simdega districts.
Nirmal Mahto: Runs Prabhu Enterprises, based in Moti Nagar and Shakurpur. FIRs against him in PS Chutiya, Ranchi. Also a known member of extortionist outfit Swantatra Nyaya Manch
Mohd Nizamuddin Ahmad: Simdega-based agent, suspected to be the point person of Baba Bamdev
Gayatri Devi: Shakurpur-based agent; currently behind bars. During a raid a database of close to 1,200 girls was recovered along with addresses of the homes in Delhi they are working in
Mahendra Sahu: Shakurpur-based agent, active in Khunti, Simdega and Lohardaga. Local police suspect him to be behind the disappearance of many girls in remote villages of the belt.
India's very own 'Slavery Express'
dna spent some days and nights at the Ranchi railway stations, monitoring various trains from the state capital to Delhi. On Mondays and Thursdays after 7 pm, the Ranchi railway station sees a trickle of groups of young girls and boys. The trickle becomes a stream by 9 pm. As dna found out, most traffickers prefer to use one train in particular. Unofficially, the Jharkhand Sampark Kranti Express, that departs from Ranchi at 11:40 pm twice a week, is India's very own 'Slavery Express'.
Most agents buy general compartment tickets and shepherd their groups to grab a seat. Some will convert the general tickets to sleeper class by paying the travelling ticket examiner (TTE). It is not baffling to see why this particular super fast train has become India's 'Slavery Express'. It leaves Ranchi in the dead of the night when policing at most stations is usually lax. In its 1,306-km journey to Delhi, the train stops at only seven stations, five of which are during the same night. That makes police interception even more difficult. The first stop of the train after sunrise is at Mughal Sarai Junction at around 9 am. From there the train speeds to Delhi covering 800 km with only one halt at Kanpur. It reaches New Delhi after dark at 8:50 pm. The nature of the journey significantly reduces the threat of interception at the station of origin, halts and arrival.
The Railway Protection Force or the local police in either Delhi or Ranchi mostly don't inspect 'Slavery Express'. "Even if we suspect someone they say they are going with their relatives. How can we prove that it is a case of trafficking?" asks an RPF officer at Ranchi.
Once they arrive in Delhi, the trafficked kids are sent to placement agencies. Most of the 240 placement agencies under the scanner of the state police are based in the locality of Shakurpur in Outer Delhi. The locality is a maddening maze of three- or four-storeyed brick houses. They are packed together with barely any space to walk or for sunlight to trickle in. Law enforcement agencies have often found it hard to penetrate this maze to carry out an investigation and join the dots to bust the bigger network of traffickers. The Jharkhand CID has been planning to conduct a joint operation with the Delhi police for over a year now. But none of their plans have yet seen the light of the day.
dna accompanied Delhi and Chhattisgarh police during a joint raid in November. On expected lines, the owner of the placement agency escaped before the police managed to locate the house. Inside, the police recovered four minors, all tribal kids from Jharkhand.
The Global Slavery Index 2013, released by the UN, estimates that half of the world's 30 million slaves are in India. Nations like Gambia, Gabon and Ivory Coast have fewer slaves in proportion to their population, compared with India. The report notes, "Information is not available about the Indian Government's total budget allocation to responding to modern slavery. The Ministry of Home Affairs, along with UNODC, developed standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the identification of victims of traffic king, in 2009. State governments were advised to implement them, but as of March 2013 no evaluation of the implementation of the SOPs has been conducted."
Most of the modern day slaves in India continue to be tribals and dalits with little knowledge of the world beyond their hamlets. In India's 'slavery belt' every village bears testimony to this trade in humans. The 'Slavery Express' might help young tribals escape a life of grinding poverty in their villages. But little do they know that hell starts where the train terminates.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=tracking}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}