A Passenger's Tweets Help Rescue 26 Minor Girls From Train In UP

As many as 26 minor girls were rescued by the police with the help of a passenger, who used quick thinking on his part, and alerted the railways with a tweet that he suspected human-trafficking gang on-board. The commuter was travelling by the Muzaffarpur-Bandra Awadh Express and noticed the group of girls and decided to raise an alarm. The GRP and RPF rushed to the situation and successfully rescued the underage girls.

On July 5, a passenger on board the train notified the railways, tweeting about the activity. Travelling in the S5 coach of the train, the passenger observed the 26 girls and some of them crying. Though they were with two men, some of them looked uncomfortable. Thus he feared something bad and took a step. The men have been detained and are being interrogated.

I am traveling in Avadh express(19040). in s5. in my coach their are 25 girls all are juvenile some of them are crying and all feeling unsecure.@RailMinIndia @PiyushGoyal @PMOIndia @PiyushGoyalOffc @narendramodi @manojsinhabjp @yogi

— Adarsh Shrivastava (@AdarshS74227065) July 5, 2018

subject to human trafficking )my current station is Hari Nagar my next station is BAGAHA and then Gorakhpur.kindly help them out. Please help.@RailMinIndia @PiyushGoyal @PiyushGoyalOffc @PMOIndia @narendramodi @rajnathsingh

— Adarsh Shrivastava (@AdarshS74227065) July 5, 2018

Officials in Varanasi and Lucknow immediately took action, and within half an hour of the alert on the social networking site, a joint team of government railway police (GRP) and Railway Protection Force (RPF) started investigating the matter, a railway spokesperson said, NDTV reported.

@spgrpgorakhpur कृपया सूचनार्थ एवं आवश्यक कार्यवाही हेतु |

— GRP UTTAR PRADESH (@upgrp) July 5, 2018

Action is happening. Thank you sir for your quick response.🙏

— Adarsh Shrivastava (@AdarshS74227065) July 5, 2018

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The GRP at Gorakhpur teamed up with Childline and the anti-trafficking unit traced the girls in the train who are natives of West Champaran . Two RPF jawans in plainclothes boarded the train at Kaptanganj and escorted them to Gorakhpur.

"26 girls were found with two men, aged 22 and 55 years. All of them are from West Champaran in Bihar. The girls were being taken from Narkatikyaganj to Idgah. When questioned the girls were unable to answer anything convincingly, so they have been handed over to the child welfare committee,” a statement from RPF said.

"Their parents have been informed and the men have been taken into custody," a statement from RPF said.

However, on Friday, while investigating, the Police were notified that the parents of rescued girls who reached Gorakhpur, were travelling to Agra with their permission. Investigation of this claim is offing.

Feature Image Credit: Khabar India

Read More Stories By Ria Das