589 children below the age of 12 detained in Palakkad

The Government Railway Police here on Monday arrested eight persons under Section 370 (5) of the Indian Penal Code on the charge of trafficking in 589 children below the age of 12 to the State.

The railway police and the district administration on Saturday detained 466 children from Bihar and Jharkhand who reached the Palakkad Junction Railway Station by the Patna- Ernakulam Express.

On Sunday night, a batch of 123 boys from West Bengal was detained when they reached the station by the Guwahati- Thiruvananthapuram Express.

While the first batch was claimed to be residents of the Mukkam Muslim Orphanage (MMO) in Kozhikode, the second batch was headed for an orphanage at Vettathur in Malappuram district.

The arrested were identified as Abdulhari Ansari, 32, Mohammed Alamgheer, 24, and Moulana Fojoululla, 26, from Bihar, Muhammed Brish Aalam, 31, from Jharkhand, and K. Manzoor, 42, V.B. Jahir, 56, and M. Backer, 49, from West Bengal.

Railway police inspector M. Manu said they were produced before a local court and remanded in judicial custody. They would be interrogated in police custody on Tuesday.

Of the 466 children detained on Saturday, 183 were handed over to the Kozhikode District Child Welfare Committee (CWC) on Sunday afternoon. Authorities of the MMO produced their identity cards and claimed their education would be disturbed if they were rehabilitated in Palakkad, which was rejected. The remaining 283 children were brought under the care of the Palakkad Child Welfare Committee, facilitating their stay in government-run homes in Palakkad.

The second batch of 123 boys reached the station by 11 p.m. on Sunday night accompanied by four elderly persons.

They were detained at a dormitory of the Railway Protection Force.