Child Trafficking: U’khand HC Orders DNA Test Of Children Seen With Beggars, Passes Other Directions [Read Judgment]

The Uttarakhand High Court has directed DNA testing of all children found begging on the streets or in company of a beggar to check their parentage and trace trafficked or kidnapped children, while also directing the state to display photographs of missing children on bus stands and railway stations, besides passing a string of directions to check inter- and intra-country human trafficking, especially child trafficking.“The Court can take judicial notice of the fact that the minors are kidnapped by the organized gangs to force them into beggary. The Police Department should conduct DNAs of the parents as well as of the children of the beggars to ensure that the children found in their company are their own children. The Court again recommends that the begging should be banned throughout the State of Uttarakhand by bringing suitable legislation on the analogy of Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Beggary Act, 1975. The religious places should be free of beggars,” ordered a bench of Justice Alok Singh and Justice Rajiv Sharma.The division bench passed the directions while reversing the trial court’s order of acquittal of one Sartaj Khan and holding him guilty of kidnapping, importing, buying, intimidating and sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl from Nepal who he had brought to India in April 2015, by practicing fraud and inducement of shopping.Sartaj, 30, had been let off by the trial court. The state had come in appeal, which was allowed by the high court, which observed that “importation of girls and their kidnapping for exploitation is a heinous crime against the Society. It is an organized crime. There should be strictness against the persons who are indulging in this heinous act”.The court will hear arguments on quantum of sentence on December 12.Girls Exported Due To Abject Poverty In U’khandDelving into various conventions and legal approach across the world to combat trafficking, the court took judicial notice of the fact that “in the State of Uttarakhand also due to abject poverty, the girls are being exported to adjoining States, more particularly, from Districts Champawat, Pithoragarh and Almora”.Increase Patrolling On International BorderThe bench noted that till October 2017, 19 cases were registered under the human trafficking in the state. The rescue victims are from Nepal, Bangladesh, West Bengal, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Nagaland.The victim in the instant appeal was also from Nepal.Referring to the Indo-Nepal treaty, 1950, the court said, “It is evident from the treaty that the movement of citizens across the country is unrestricted but still to check the human trafficking, more particularly of minor girls, the central agencies, local agencies should at least insist for proper verification and identity of children more particularly, minor girls coming to India. The antecedents should be verified and counter checking be made from the authorities in Nepal. The agency should ensure that the children who are travelling to India without their legal guardian should be properly counselled and telephone numbers of their guardian should be taken along with the permanent address to be verified and re-verified from the counterpart agencies of Nepal.”Book Wrongdoings At Shishu Niketan Shelter HomeThe court also took note of the news item captioned “Government sitting on national global trafficking racket in Uttarakhand”, published in an English daily on December 5, which reported that Manoj Chandran, then Additional Secretary of the State Social Welfare Department, has prepared the report regarding ‘rampant child trafficking going on in the state’, which highlights several points that required into criminal acts against the children at Shishu Niketan shelter home.“It is stated in the report that the children brought to the shelter homes were sent to work at different houses in Dehradun and Noida as a domestic help. However, till date, no FIR has been registered against the persons employed in Shishu Niketan for their criminal acts. There is also reference of girls from Nepal and Jharkhand,” it noted.The bench directed the state government to constitute a special investigation team headed by the Senior Superintendent of Police to investigate the matter, as per the details given in the report by Manoj Chandran, within four weeks and register FIRs against the persons, who were/are involved in human trafficking of boys/girls from shelter homes.Disturbing FiguresThe court noted that there is a mere 14.3 per cent conviction rate when it comes to cases of child trafficking.In 2013, 16 cases were registered of human trafficking. In 2014, 28 cases were registered. In 2015, 23 cases were registered. In 2016, 12 cases were registered, while 19 cases were registered till October 2017.According to National Crime Records Bureau report, 208 girls and 216 boys were missing in the previous years in Uttarakhand, below the age of 18 years.In 2016, 224 boys and 211 girls had gone...

Child Trafficking: U’khand HC Orders DNA Test Of Children Seen With Beggars, Passes Other Directions [Read Judgment]

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Child Trafficking: U’khand HC Orders DNA Test Of Children Seen With Beggars, Passes Other Directions [Read Judgment]

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