39 Nepali girls rescued from hotel in Paharganj

■ Police says girls staying on own volition

Continuing to put a bridle on human traffickers in the national capital, the Delhi Commission for Women, in a joint operation with the police, rescued 39 Nepalese girls from a hotel in Paharganj in the early hours on Wednesday.

However, the DCP M. S. Randhawa said that the rescued girls were “staying in the hotel on their own volition and had come to Delhi in search of employment.”

“They have not indicated any cognizable offence committed against them,” he tweeted.

According to the DCW, the anti- trafficking operation started at 1 am following a tip- off and continued till 6 am.

DCW chief Swati Maliwal took to Twitter to provide details about the operation. “DCW received tip off and rescued 39 Nepali girls from Hotel Hriday Inn, Paharganj. Raid lasted the entire night and assistance was provided by Delhi Police. Entire hotel had only trafficked Nepali girls who were being sent to Gulf countries. Huge trafficking racket busted!” she tweeted.

The victims are in the age group of 18 to 30 years and had been trafficked from earthquakeaffected regions of Nepal on the pretext of providing jobs. The hotel housed only Nepali girls and no money was taken from them. Their “agents” used to pay the hotel. The girls were being sent to Gulf countries and Sri Lanka.

An information was received from a woman that her sister had already been sent by the traffickers to Sri Lanka and she has not been able to contact her ever since. She added that she had been pleading the trafficker to return her sister’s passport and allow her to leave for Nepal, but to no avail. Most of the girls shared similar harrowing stories, said the DCW.

This was DCW’s third rescue operation within a week.