The Upparpet Police waited for three days before booking a case against the employee of a construction giant caught bringing child labourers from West Bengal. And even then, it was a case of Crime Miscellaneous or minor crime
The Upparpet Police waited for three days before booking a case against the employee of a construction giant caught bringing child labourers from West Bengal. And even then, it was a case of Crime Miscellaneous or minor crimeAu00a0man from Kolkata caught trafficking children for a leading construction company was let off without Upparpet police filing a complaint.
Twenty five-year-old Kolkata native Basheer, who is also an employee of the company, was caught red-handed by volunteers of Bosco Mane three days back at a bus stand along with eight children. On interrogation, Basheer revealed that the children belonged to poor families and their parents were given Rs 1,000 each in return for the children.
Bosco Mane had informed the Child Welfare Committee and later, Upparpet police about the incident, seeking further investigations and had even given a formal complaint.
'Children are cheaper'
Basheer confessed to the volunteers that his superiors in the company, which is part of a large industrial group, had asked him specifically to get child labourers. He said it worked out much cheaper for the company as they paid them only Rs 80 a day, compared to adults who are paid Rs 250 to Rs 300.
Bosco Mane executive director Fr Edward told MiD DAY that some representatives of the company had approached him offering to pay a bribe to hush up the case, but he sent them off saying they had already filed a police complaint.
'Minor crime' says police Not surprisingly then, Upparpet police which took Basheer under custody, waited for three days to book a case against him, and that too under CM (Crime Miscellaneous, or minor crime), only to release him afterwards.u00a0
u00a0The police, however, released Basheer without filing the complaint. Taking serious note of this, Bosco Mane then informed CWC, which issued a notice to Upparpet police station seeking explanation on why the complaint was not filed.
CWC also sent copies of the letter to the city commissioner of police and director general and inspector general of police. As soon as he got the notice, Upparpet police inspector Lokeshwar and his team rushed to file a case against Basheer.
Lokeshwar had initially told MiD DAY that they have not taken action because they had not received any complaint.
Meanwhile, a team of advocates and senior employees of the company, which until then had taken no action, rushed to the CWC seeking custody of the children. They were told that only the legal parents of the children could secure their release and they too will have to submit relevant documents to prove their parenthood.
CWC member P N Basavraj told MiD DAY that out of eight rescued children, three have already been handed over to their parents.
The remaining children have been temporarily sheltered in homes for boys under the care of CWC staff.
