Trio claim to be from WB
Imphal, July 28 : Police arrested three non-Manipuris, including a couple yesterday, on charges of trafficking children for begging. Six children brought from outside Manip-ur by them were also rescued.
The three arrested persons were identified as Nandu Ved, 35, his wife Tamator, 35, and another woman identified as Phul Kumari, 30. The police and Child Welfare Committee, Imphal West, said the three persons claimed to be from West Bengal, but their exact origin is being investigated.
All three were produced in an Imphal East court today and remanded in judicial custody for 15 days. They came to Manipur on Monday along with the children in the age group of six months to 12 years. Two of them are children of the couple.
The police said the trio were picked up from near Mahabali in the city along with two children yesterday. Four children were in the custody of Imphal West Child Welfare Committee and two went to jail along with their parents.
The police said the children were very young and they could not be separated from their mother.
Child Welfare Committee chairperson Annie Mangsatabam said the matter came to light after the police found two children loitering around last night and handed them over to the committee.
“After investigation we came to know that they were brought to Manipur on Monday by some persons and lost their way while begging in the city. Then we lodged a complaint with the police and three were arrested yesterday,” she said.
Two other children were also rescued by the committee and taken into its custody.
The police said two children were with the trio when they were picked up yesterday. The police and the committee suspect some more children were brought along with the six and are looking for them.
“The trio possessed forged documents and we could not believe they really hail from West Bengal. They sometimes said they came from Dimapur, sometimes Bihar and sometimes West Bengal. We are trying to find out their exact origins. They could also have come from Bangladesh,” Mangsatabam said.
The police, however, said they “looked like Bengalis.”
In the FIR, the address of the trio is recorded as Kamakhagori Super Market, West Bengal. They were found at a temporary shelter at Mahabali here yesterday.
Mangsatabam said the trio forced the children to beg in different parts of Imphal; two of them lost their way and were found by the police.
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