Puri: Around 40 girls have been trafficked from this Pilgrim city to Rajasthan in the past five months.
Seven of them hail from Parvatipur under Baseli Sahi police limits.
If sources are to be believed then a racket is operating right under the nose of police. Girls from poor families are taken outside the state on the pretext of employment and income.
Sources said three women are working for the racket to identify girls from poor families in the area. It is suspected that the gang operatives are staying at different hotels and switching their locations at regular intervals to avoid detection.
It is alleged that while some operatives of the racket are engaged in luring the girls and their families, others take the girls by train to Rajasthan. To avoid getting busted, the gang members prefer to book the train tickets from different stations.
Some youths of Parvatipur area, on condition of anonymity, informed the media that to stay away from any legal hassles the racket operatives are also getting stamp papers signed by the family members or guardians of the girls. Besides, the families of the girls are also being paid between Rs 20,000 to 30,000.
The youths further said that the gang first targets a poor family and contacts them over phone. Later, they ask the family members to bring the girls to Bhubaneswar Railway Station, from where they are sent to Rajasthan. The gang operatives are sprawling in the vicinity of Puri and Brahmagiri areas while police remained mute onlookers, alleged the youths.
When asked about the issue, Baseli Sahi inspector-in-charge Jaydeep Mohanty replied, “On the basis of the allegations, raids were conducted in the area, but no trace of girl trafficking was found.” He added that an investigation in this regard has been initiated.
It is worth mentioning here that last year in Puri, the labour department and Childline members had rescued 20 girls from Puri Station, among whom 16 were minors, while they were being trafficked to Rajasthan. Later, reports of rampant trafficking of women and girls were also reported from Puri Sadar and Brahmagiri areas but no action was taken to curb the menace.
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