CNN-IBN busts child trade racket, rescues 8

New Delhi: Eight minor children have been rescued from an illegal placement agency run a man named Arif and his wife Camilla, in Delhi's Baljit Nagar.

It all started when two months ago, a man named Ishwar Das Tirkey contacted CNN-IBN saying two of his sisters had gone missing after he left them with Arif and Camilla's agency.

"Ye bola ki tera bahan milega nahi aur tera bahan bech diya hai. Jo karna hai kar le. (He told me I would not find my sister and that she had been sold,") said Ishwar Das.

Ishwar had rescued his third sister Sunita from Arif. Sunita alleges Arif would regularly molest girls at his agency.

"He would come in the middle of the night and do 'bad' things to us," said Sunita.

Ishwar says his sisters were trafficked from Jharkhand by a woman named Asha Tirkey, an agent who regularly supplied minor girls to Arif.

"Asha jhooth bol deti hai gaon mai ja ke maa baap se ladki lene ke liye. (Asha used to lie to parents in villages and take away their children,") said Ishwar Das.

When CNN-IBN's SIT confronted Asha Tirkey, she did not put up much of a protest and instead, accepted her role in the racket.

CNN-IBN: "Aap kitni ladkiyo ko laye ho? (How many children have you got from the villages?")

Asha: Not too many. Only four.

Since Asha had fallen out with Arif, she agreed to help CNN-IBN trace him. She called him up and fixed a meeting with him.

Asha (on phone): "Tum sey milna hai, bolo kab milogey? (I want to meet you. When will you meet?")

Arif (on phone): "Purani jagah aaja. Wwaha aadmi sey baat kiya hun, woh aa jayega tere ko lene. (Come to the old place. I will send a man to pick you up from there.)"

Asha took the SIT to the by-lanes of Delhi's Baljit Nagar, where Arif's man approached her.

Arif's Man: "Woh jisko lane wala tha usko nahi laye? (Didn't you bring who you were supposed to bring?)"

Asha: "Ladki ko? (The girl?)"

The man got suspicious and vanished, but with help from members of the NGO Nirmal Niketan, CNN-IBN was able to trace Arif's home-cum-office.

There were eight minor children at his place, some barely in their teens. When confronted, Arif denied charges of child trafficking.

Arif tried to explain away the presence of the children by saying, "Ladki toh woh hain joh koi apna rishteydaar aa gaya. (I only bring girls who are my relatives here.")

But the children gave the game away saying that they had come to Arif's place because they were to be sent to places where they would wash dishes, clothes, and be made to sweep and mop.

Arif's neighbors confirm the story.

"Yeh log jagah jagah se ladkiya laate hai khareed ke. Yahan laate hai, unka balatkar karte hai, dhanda karate hai, aur unhe bechte hai. (They bring girls here, rape them, pimp them and sell them)," say neighbours.

Arif has been charged with rape as well as crimes under the Juvenile Justice Act. And the eight minors are now with the Delhi Child Welfare Committee.

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