Pune police rescue 10 child workers on Children’s Day

The social security cell (SSC) of the city crime branch rescued 10 child workers on Monday. Cases would be registered against the owners and managers of the hotels under the Juvenile Justice Act, 1986. The children, aged between 10 and 16 years, were employed in the various hotels in the city.

The SSC sleuths on Monday, the Children’s Day,  raided Gandharva, Mathura, Ashwamedh, George and Saubhadra hotels and rescued six children, two under the age of 14 years and four under the age of 16.

SSC senior police inspector Bhanupratap Barge said, “We have received directions from the police commissioner to take action against the hotel owners. We raided the hotels in Deccan Gymkhana, Shivajinagar and cantonment areas and rescued 10 children who were working in the backyard and kitchens as dishwashers.”

“Among 10 children, two are from Nepal, four from Bihar, two from Uttar Pradesh and two from Raigad in Maharashtra. We are now verifying whether they had ran away from their homes or brought by someone by promising job in the city,” he said.

Barge said that raids will continue in the city as per the commissioner of police’s directions. He said that it is the labour commissioner’s responsibility to conduct raids and rescue minor children.

“Today’s action was proactively taken by us,” he said. Rescued children will be presented before the commissioner of labour on Tuesday and later sent to correction house.