Hummingbird News Desk
BANKURA, 19 JULY: A principal of a reputed Centre-sponsored Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya and seven others have been arrested in connection with alleged child trafficking in Bankura last night.
They were produced before the Bankura district court today where the magistrate on hearing pleas remanded five persons including the principal, Kamal Kumar Rajoria in police custody for five days while three others have been sent to the jail custody.
The Bankura police initially rescued three kids aged between 9 months to 6 years and sent them to the government Home shelter. Later, in subsequent raids, two more kids were rescued from Rajoria’s possession.
Local residents who had intercepted a car in which a baby was dumped for trafficking caught Rajoria red handed. They then raided his residential house inside the school premises and held seven others. All the accused were handed over before the police by the local residents.
The incident and subsequent arrests have triggered a wide-spread sensation across the state today and Ananya Chakraborty – the Chairperson, State Child Welfare Committee expressed concern and made a call to DM, Bankura K Radhika Aiyar today asking her to furnish details of the incident. The DM said: “The children have been rescued and shifted to Home and the police already have begun a probe.”
The Trinamul Congress also took to the field after the incident came to light. Minister of State Shashi Panja tweeted to the BJP on Monday. She also attached a picture with the post where Principal Kamal Kumar is seen with BJP MP Subhash Sarkar.
Ms Panja questioned in her tweet, “The principal of Jawahar Naboday Vidyalaya in Bankura is involved in child trafficking. His connection with BJP MP Subhash Sarkar is worrying. Does the BJP give shelter to all these criminals?
In retaliation, the BJP raised the issue of Debanjan Deb, the mastermind behind the fake vaccine scandal. Sayantan Basu, general secretary of the state BJP, said, “Nothing can be proved with such a picture. Give information if there is evidence. It will not be of any use to cover up all the information and evidence found by various leaders and ministers about Debanjan Deb involved in the fake vaccination scandal. The BJP cannot be cornered by all this.”
Four years ago, a home in Jalpaiguri was accused of trafficking children abroad in the name of adoption. The name of Juhi Chowdhury, general secretary of BJP’s state women’s front, was involved. The state intelligence office (CID) even sent notices to Rajya Sabha MP Rupa Gangopadhyay and Kailash Vijayavargiya, the BJP’s central observer in West Bengal.
Rajoria, while being taken to the Court said: “Charges against me are false and fabricated.”
The Vidyalaya – a unit of a Centre sponsored system of CBSE affiliated chain of schools set up for upbringing of scholar students predominantly from rural India runs its Bankura chapter at Kalpathar locality on the NH-60 within Bankura – 1 block.
Rajoria – a resident of Rajasthan joined as its principal four years ago. He, according to the police: “Became a frequenter to Kada Road red-light areas in Durgapur city where he fell in the trap of a child trafficking racket especially after he met one Ria Badyakar – a 23 year-old pimp and mother of five children.” Ria accompanied by her brothers and mother came to Rajoria’s place with her nine-month’s baby last evening. As the police investigations revealed, the principal had mediated a ‘deal’ of sale of the baby to one Susma Sharma – a teacher with the same school who incidentally is a childless woman. The police said: “At Rs 2.20 Lakh the baby was sold to Sharma and we have recovered Rs 1.75 Lakh of the sale amount from Ria’s house last night.”
The police chased Rajoria – “Why the kids were dumped at his possession?” Rajoria’s lawyer Rathin De said today: “Ria is a poor woman and her husband deserted her. To help maintenance of her kids, she voluntarily had taken her children to Rajoria’s place.”
Tags: #JawaharNavodayaVidyalaya #Bankura #ChildTrafficking