Eleven Girls Rescued and Two Major Traffickers Arrested
Free for Life International, a U.S. anti-trafficking organization, in partnership with a Nepalese NGO, Peace Rehabilitation Center (Shanti Punarsthapana Griha) just completed a first of its kind raid and arrest of two major traffickers. This is the first time in history that the Indian Police Special Task force has partnered with a U.S. and Nepalese organization to assist in this type of mission which resulted in the rescue of 11 girls and the arrest of two major traffickers in India. For the past month Free for Life International Liaison, Suman Sapkota, and his team from Peace Rehabilitation Center (Shanti Punarsthapana Griha) have been arranging this rescue operation.
After receiving a tip off from an individual, whose wife had been trafficked, the Indian Police had been watching two traffickers: Rajan Adhikari and Jivan Pun. The victims husband worked with Free for Life International, Peace Rehabilitation Center (PRC), and the Indian Police to set up a sting operation with the suspected traffickers. Adhikari informed the man that if he wanted his wife released, he would need two other young women in exchange. Free for Life and Peace Rehabilitation Center used one employee and one recently rescued girl to be placed as bait for the trafficker to meet with the individual. During this sting, the trafficker was surrounded by undercover Indian police. As soon as Adhikari and Pun approached the man and two girls, in the pretext of handing the girls over, the traffickers were immediately detained. The team, comprised of Indian Police, and Free for Life and Peace Rehabilitation employees, then went to rescue 11 girls.
As the Kathmandu Post reports, “As per a tip-off received by the crime branch of the Indian Police a month ago, investigating officers raided an apartment in Basantakunja, Delhi, on Friday evening and rounded up two suspected traffickers and 11 women. The Indian authorities had initiated a probe as Shanti Punarsthapana Griha (Peace Rehabilitation Center) and Free for Life International, organizations working against woman trafficking, provided inputs regarding the trafficking of Nepali women to various Gulf countries via New Delhi and Colombo, Sri Lanka.”
These 11 girls were in Basantakunja, Delhi located in a high-rise apartment building. The girls that were rescued are all Nepalese, and had been lured on the pretense of false jobs and foreign employment in Iraq and Kuwait. Later, the Nepalese Embassy provided travel documents for them to cross the border back into Nepal. All of their passports and papers had been taken by the traffickers. An official escorted them back to Nepal to the NGO’s shelter in Kathmandu where they are being medically, emotionally and physically screened and repatriated with their families.
It has now been revealed that these two traffickers, Adhikari and Pun, have been sending up to 40 trafficked women a month to Iraq and Kuwait.
To learn more or to make a donation to future raids go to freeforlifeintl.org.
(Source: Christian Newswire)
