31 children rescued

IMPHAL, Jun 23: Altogether 31 children––15 boys and 16 girls, have been rescued minutes before the were taken to Noida, Uttar Pradesh by a joint team of Child Welfare Committee, Child Line and Anti-Trafficking Squad of Social Welfare Department. Acting on information shared by Imphal East District Police, the joint team went to North AOC yesterday and found all the 31 children seated inside an inter-State bus (MN-01/1515). One Lucy Niang of Sugnu, Thoubal district was arranging to take the children to Father Agnel Bal Bhavan at Greater Noida, UP. Speaking to media persons at Takyelpat Children Home today, CWC Thoubal Chairperson Mala Lisham quoted Lucy Niang as saying that all the children aged between 5 and 17 years were studying at Greater Noida and they were being taken to their place of learning as their vacation period is over. But Lucy Niang could not produce relevant documents whereas some of the children need care and protection under the Juvenile Justice Act. Moreover, there is an order of the Supreme Court which prohibits one from taking children below 12 years across States even if it is for schooling. In view of all these factors, a report was filed at Imphal police station following which Lucy Niang was arrested yesterday itself. Travel fares as well as educational expenses of the children were borne by the Noida children home, Mala said as claimed by Lucy. Taking serious note of the incident, CWCs held a meeting yesterday and decided to keep orphaned children in Government run children homes and return other children to their parents or relatives in accordance with their desire. It was also agreed not to allow anybody take the children to another location until further order or until an enquiry is completed so as to avoid exploitation of the children, Mala said. She said that necessary communications are being made with their Noida counterparts to ascertain details of the children home where the rescued children were purportedly learning. Apart from Uttar Pradesh being a State where the rate of crime against children is highest, Noida is notorious for rackets which deal in illegal organ transplantation, she added. [The Sangai Express | 24-Jun-2013]

4-yr-old rape victim dies in Nagpur

Nagpur (Maharashtra), April 30, 2013 [ANI] --- The four-year-old rape victim from Ghansor in Madhya Pradesh's Seoni District, who was battling for her life, has died of cardiac arrest at the privately-run Care Hospital in Nagpur. Doctors said that the child died at 7.45 p.m. on Monday night after all efforts to revive her through cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) had failed. They said the child's body was sent for a post mortem an hour after her death to the Government Medical College and Hospital as it was a medico legal case. The girl was in coma ever since she was airlifted from Jabalpur on April 20. The victim had suffered a severe damage to her brain and was on life support system and drugs. The Madhya Pradesh Government bore all of her medical expenses. "Her haemodynamic parameters which at least were stable until a few days back were deteriorating. Her blood pressure was very low in spite of best possible medication," Dr Ashok Tank had said on Monday, adding that she was pronounced dead at 7.45 p.m. The girl was kidnapped from her residence on April 17 in Ghansor and was apparently abandoned in the fields after being raped. She was found by some villagers on the morning of April 18. One of the two accused, Firoz Khan (28) - who was a friend of the girl's uncle - was arrested from Bihar's Hussainabad area in Bhagalpur district. The other accused Rakesh Chaudhary (24) was arrested earlier. The girl's father was a labourer and was not in Ghansor at the time of the incident. Her mother is a farm hand.

Journalist arrested for rape attempt on six-year-old girl

YAVATMAL (MAHARASHTRA), APRIL 29, 2013 [PTI] --- A 50-year-old journalist of a local vernacular daily was arrested for his alleged attempt to rape a six-year-old girl in Maharashtra, police said today. The accused, Pradeep Laxman Deshmukh, was caught on Sunday by a youth from an isolated spot near Arni state transport bus stand while he was trying to rape the girl studying in first standard. The journalist was handed over to police by the youth and his friends, Arni police station official Girish Bobade said. "The accused was in an inebriated condition and confessed to have committed the crime," he said. A medical examination conducted on the victim at Yavatmal Medical College confirmed attempt to rape. Pradeep works for a local Marathi daily and is married. He has an 18-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old son, Bobade said, adding that the accused happens to be the victim's neighbour and often used to take her on his bicycle after promising her chocolates or other eatables. The accused was produced on Monday before a local court, which remanded him in magisterial custody, police said.

4 men gangraped a 13-year-old girl in Assam, 5 nabbed

Tinsukia, Assam, Jan 4, 2013 [PTI] --- A 13-year-old girl in Tinsukia district of upper Assam was allegedly gang-raped by four persons on suspicion that she had stolen a mobile phone of one of them, police said today. Five persons, including a woman, were arrested. The incident occurred at Sukanpukhuri tea estate under Makum police station on the intervening night of January 2-3 after one of the accused, Jogeshwar Mali, lost his cellphone. His wife Tusu suspected that the girl, who is from the same tea estate, had stolen the mobile. Police said Tusu incited her husband and his friends to punish the girl and the four caught hold of the girl at a lonely stretch of the estate and raped her. The police today arrested Tusu, Mali and his friends Sanesh Nayak, Tirnath Mali, Ram Chandra Patnaik after the girl told the family about the incident. The mobile was yet to be found.