Sedated Toddler Kidnapped from Railway Station Rescued at DDU; Interstate Child Trafficking Racket Busted

Hours after a two-year-old child was kidnapped while he was sleeping under the stairs at a railway station, he was rescued at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (DDU) Station near Varanasi by the Railway Protection Force (RPF), Government Railway Police (GRP), and NGO Association for Voluntary Action (AVA). The child, who had been sedated, was being trafficked to Muzaffarpur when officials grew suspicious of the group and apprehended the accused minutes before the departure of their train.

Four accused, including one woman, who were part of an organized trafficking network, were arrested, and an FIR has been registered against six individuals. AVA is a partner of Just Rights for Children, one of the largest networks of NGOs working for child protection across the country, and has an MoU with the RPF for the rescue of trafficked children through railway routes.

The accused revealed that they had kidnapped the child while he was sleeping alongside his family members under the staircase at a station, and hid him behind bushes until the train arrived. To ensure that the child did not cry or raise an alarm, they fed him a sedative.

“The accused confessed that they were part of an organized trafficking group and would sell children to a man and woman who were employees of a nursing home in Muzaffarpur. They would receive Rs. 20,000 or more for each child sold. They had already sold around seven to eight children to them,” the FIR stated.

At around 10:20 a.m., the team members of RPF, GRP, and AVA spotted the group and found their behavior suspicious. When questioned, they fumbled, and upon sustained cross-examination, admitted that they had kidnapped the child at around 5:00 a.m. They were about to board a Bihar-bound train in ten minutes.

“During investigation, it was found that they often fed children milk laced with Alprascen 0.5 to render them unconscious,” the FIR stated, adding that they dressed the children in new clothes and sedated them during their journeys. Alprascen is a prescription medicine administered to adult patients with anxiety disorders and can be fatal if given to children. Diapers, woollen caps, children’s clothes, feeding bottles, two tablets of Alprascen, and milk packets were recovered from the accused. All the accused were residing in rented flats in Ara, Bihar.

Thanking RPF for its relentless and swift action in busting these trafficking rackets, Manish Sharma, Senior Director, Association for Voluntary Action, said, “Trafficking of children is an extremely nuanced and organized crime where interstate gangs collude to kidnap and traffic children. These children are then sold to brothels, forced into marriage, pushed into hazardous labour, used for illegal adoption, organ trade and subjected to unimaginable extent of abuse. We need to investigate and determine the intended purpose of this trafficking.

Considering that Muzaffarpur hospitals have been in the news for similar cases in the past, investigations must be thorough and urgent. Unless all the accused are brought to justice and the law tightens its noose around them, such trafficking and exploitation rackets will continue to operate fearlessly.”

Meanwhile, the child’s parents were found searching for him at the station. The parents, who are residents of Rohtas in Bihar, immediately recognized the child. The child was subsequently produced before the Child Welfare Committee, DDU in Chandoli district, and the accused were arrested for further investigation.

In this connection, an FIR has been registered at GRP DDU under Sections 143(5) and 137 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, and Sections 21 and 22 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.