After passenger’s tweet, 26 girls rescued by GRP, RPF from train
NEW DELHI: 26 underage girls were rescued by the GRP and RPF from the Muzaffarpur-bandra Awadh Express after a tweet from a passenger alerted them to the situation.
On July 5, a passenger on board the train tweeted that he was travelling in the S5 coach of the train and noticed around 25 girls crying and looking uncomfortable.
Reacting to the tweet, officials in Varanasi as well as Lucknow swung into action and within half an hour of the alert on social media site started investigating the matter, a railway spokesperson said.
The GRP at Gorakhpur coordinated with Childline along with the anti-trafficking unit of the police.
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.
The girls are believed to be between the ages of 10 and 14 years.
“Their parents have been informed and the men have been taken into custody,” a statement from RPF said.
This incident comes days after Chairman Railway Board Ashwani Lohani launched an awareness campaign for protection of children coming in contact with railways. HYDERABAD: Supporting the Law Commission’s recommendation on allowing gambling and betting in sports, retired Supreme Court Judge N Santosh Hegde on Friday even favoured legalising prostitution, saying vices cannot be abolished by the state.
“A person who thinks vices can be abolished by law is living in a fool’s paradise,” said the former Solicitor General of India.
The Law Commission yesterday recommended that gambling and betting in sports be allowed as regulated activities taxable under the direct and indirect tax regimes and used as a source for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI).
“It’s a very good recommendation”, Hegde said. “There are certain vices which cannot be controlled by law and any attempt to control such vices will lead to illegal systems developing”.
“We have experienced it earlier when there was prohibition. There is illicit liquor production there (where prohibition was in place). Government loses excise duty, the vice will continue, you can’t control it. These are certain things which can’t be controlled by law”, he said. Similarly, illegal gambling is going on in the country. Making it legitimate and by controlling it, 70-75 per cent of illegal activities will stop, the former Karnataka Lokayukta said.
“But certain amount of control is absolutely necessary”.
Asked if he thought prostitution should also be legalised, Hegde said: “It has to be legalised. It’s going on everywhere. What’s the big idea of.. (keeping it illegal). It should be legalised”.