As many as 25 minor girls were rescued by the Railway police from Muzaffarpur-Bandra Awadh Express near Gorakhpur on Thursday after a passenger used Twitter to alert them. A passenger, with the twitter handle Adarsh Shrivastava, was on board when he noticed suspicious activity in his coach.
The passenger tweeted that he was travelling in the S5 coach of the train and have seen more than 25 girls crying and looked ‘insecure’.
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
He further raised suspicion that the minors could have been trafficked.
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
Reacting to the tweet, officials in Varanasi as well as Lucknow swung into action and within half an hour of the alert message on social media, the investigation had begun.
The GRP at Gorakhpur coordinated with Childline along with the anti-trafficking unit of the police. Two RPF jawans in plain clothes boarded the train at Kaptanganj and the girls were found with two men, aged 22 and 55 years. Both of them were arrested and the girls were escorted to Gorakhpur.
All of them are from West Champaran in Bihar,” Railway officials said. “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.” Meanwhile, the parents of the girls have been informed.
