Continuing his effort to eradicate the law and order issues and social concerns of the district, Araria SP Shivdeep Waman Lande has unearthed the case of 24 missing girls from Kasturba Gandhi Residential School (Simraha) in past 5 years. After S P Lande made the issue public the district police of Araria said that on May 19, 2010 they had rescued four girl students of the school from a red light area near Forbesganj and handed them to their parents. Most of the missing girls were belonging to poor families and they could have been sold to various brothels spread across the region on Indo-Nepal border.
More than two years have passes but still the 24 students of the school are still reported to be missing. In fact, no one from the school Principal didn’t reported the police about the missing girls. Only on June 8 this year the District Programme Officer was informed about the missing students for the first time in five years.
Describing the issue of missing girls a serious matter, Araria SP S W Lande said a four-member police team comprising Vikas Kumar (DSP), Harishankar Kumar (DSP), Ram Vilas Singh (Forbesganj SHO) and woman officer Mahashweta Sinha has been constituted to trace the girls. The team would be assisted by Ghosh, said the Superintendent of Police.
At the mean time, the Araria Police suspect hands of two persons Kalam and Gainul behind the conspiracy of missing girls from the school hostel. While Kalam, employed with an NGO working against human trafficking is already arrested by Police, whereas Gainul is still absconding. While the District Magistrate of Araria denied having received any complaint in this regards, Manish Jha, state coordinator of Apne Aap, an NGO which monitors the management of Kasturba Gandhi Residential School, the administration had been informed from time to time about the missing girls.
