Hindustan Times (Amritsar)

Ludhiana shelter home kingpin sent to 14day judicial custody

- Debashish Sarkar htjharkhan­d@hindustant­imes.com ■

JAMSHEDPUR : Satyendra Prasad Moses, alleged kingpin running the illegal Packiam Mercy Cross Child Shelter Home in Ludhiana, and his former student Junul Longa were produced in Chaibasa court here on Saturday and sent to 14-day judicial custody.

JAMSHEDPUR : Satyendra Prasad Moses, alleged kingpin running the illegal Packiam Mercy Cross Child Shelter Home in Ludhiana, and his former student Junul Longa were produced in Chaibasa court here on Saturday and sent to jail on charges of converting 34 kids from Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum, Ranchi and Khunti districts, police said.

Police brought Moses from Ludhiana along with four kids originally hailing from Khunti and Bundu (Ranchi) who were also kept in Packiam Mercy Cross Child Shelter Home along with 30 more children in the age group of 5 to 13 years under inhuman conditions. West Singhbhum police have also successful­ly traced 20 out of the 30 kids missing from the home and search was on to trace remaining 10 kids.

Moses and Longa have been charged with Section 4 of the

Jharkhand Religious Freedom Act, 2017, along with immoral traffickin­g under Section 5 of Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, Section 370 of the IPC and

Section 42 of the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act. “Moses and Longa were produced in the court from where they were sent to 14 days judicial custody. We will soon take them

on remand for further investigat­ion. We have evidence of conversion and other forms of exploitati­on of the kids in the Ludhianaba­sed home run by Moses and Longa,” said Kranti Kumar Gadidheshi, West Singhbhum SP.

“We have verified 20 of the 30 children missing from the home. They are in their houses with their parents. We expect names and records of the remaining 10 kids from Ludhiana in a day or two. Subsequent­ly, we will verify those while we have rescued back four kids,” added the SP.

Police said special police team led by Chaibasa anti-human traffickin­g unit police station in-charge found during investigat­ion in Ludhiana that Moses, 56, originally from Gaya in Bihar, drove 30 children out of the home as soon as Ludhiana child welfare committee contacted him.

“During interrogat­ion, Moses disclosed that his former student Longa had brought all the 34 kids to the home from West Singhbhum, Khunti and Ranchi districts. Alerted by the child welfare committee visit, Moses called Longa and sent 20 children with him.

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