Himachal: Legal advisor inspects Pong wetland for ‘illegal’ activities

Himachal Pradesh: A joint team of Punjab and Bihar police and Bihar-based NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan on Sunday rescued 11 children who were being forced to do hard labour in a potato field in Brindpur, Kapurthala. Eight of the rescued children are from Sitamarhi in Bihar, while the rest are from Nepal. The raid was conducted in response to an FIR lodged last month in Sitamarhi against two agents who allegedly lured four men and several children aged between 12 and 16 years from a village in Bihar to work in potato fields in Kapurthala at a wage of Rs 12,000 per month. The parents of one of the rescued children alleged to the complainant that Bigan Rai, a resident of Sonbarsa (Bihar), and his brother Jinesh Rai took their children and relatives to Kapurthala where they were kept hostage, beaten and forced to work 16 hours a day in the field. Sources said Bigan Rai was involved in several cases of child labour and human trafficking. The FIR was registered on November 21 at Sursand police station in Sitamarhi under sections 137 (2), 146 and 3(5) of the BNS Act, 3(1)(h)(i)(s) of the SC/ST Act, 17, 18 of the Bonded Labour Abolition Act, 3, 14 of the Prohibition of Child and Adolescent Labour Act and sections 75 and 79 of the JJ Act. Police officials from Bihar arrived here this morning after gathering information about the whereabouts of the victims. A raid was conducted at a potato field, following which 11 children and four adults were rescued. “So far, 11 children and 20 adults have been rescued from the village. The victims have been sent home after counselling,” said ASI Jaswinder Singh of Sadar police station in Kapurthala, who was involved in the raid.