Seven minor boys ‘kidnapped’ from MP; lured with promise of work

Mukesh Pandey

NewsBits.in

Bhopal: Seven minor boys have gone missing from Harda in Madhya Pradesh. Following parents’ complaint, the local Kotwali police have filed case of abduction against an unknown man.

Sources indicated that the boys were lured with promise of work in Bangalore and might have gone with the man on their own accord. However, since the boys are minor, police have registered case of kidnapping.

The Harda SP Aditya Pratap Singh told NewsBits.in that a team of police has been sent out to Bangalore to look for the boys and their ‘abductor’. More sections of crime would be imposed against accused once more details come to the fore.

The boys – in the age group 15 to 17 years – and all residents of Doodh Dairy locality of Harda, went missing from September 21. Their family waited for them till Thursday and then went to the police station in the evening.

After examining the birth date certificates of the boys, the police registered a FIR of abduction. Bhajan Korku works as a class 4 employee with local government college. He told NewsBits.in that his son Sunil, 15, went missing on Wednesday and on Thursday when he could be contacted on phone, the boy seemed very frightened and told his father that he was in Bangalore.

The boy reportedly told his father that a man from ‘Gali number 3’ with anti-social antecedents had lured them away. Raju Kalam said that his son Jay had gone to school to give his class 9 exam on September 21 and called up later in day to say that he was going to Hoshangabad with his friends. When called next day, Jay said he was in Indore.

“This raised our suspicion and then we decided to report the matter to police,” he said. Vishnu Jaiswal of Synergy Sansthan, a NGO that works with children, said that a number of teenagers are lured out of the state for work. “Boys from poor families are often easier to lure as money is promised to them in a big city.”

He mentioned that according to census of 2011, there were 4476 child labourers working in Harda. The other missing boys include Kamal son of Chatru, Kamal song of Gangu, Sunil Korku, Rajesh Korku, Pawan Balai and Mohit Balai, police sources said.