Tirunelveli: The Tirunelveli range police nabbed six ‘brokers’, including an aged woman, involved in child-trafficking. The police also rescued four children kidnapped by the gang. Following the frequent child missing cases reported in the southern districts, Tirunelveli range DIG, Sumit Saran, constituted special police teams to look into the issue. A team, headed by aditional superintendent of police, Balasubramanian, on a tip-off, rescued a two-year-old girl child and and a four-year-old boy from Ramar and Serman of Velappanadanoor village, in Sernthamaram police station limits in Tirunelveli district.
The two children have been identified as Aswini (2) daughter of Elangovan (32) and Sudha (28) of Katur, in Tiruchy district, and Charan, son of the Rajadurai of Ezhayirampannai, near Kovilpatti, in Thoothukudi district. After handing over the children to their parents, the police said the two were kidnapped when they came to Tiruchendur temple along with their parents and were sold to Ramar and Serman for Rs1 lakh each.
Charan, sleeping near his parents on the temple corridor on December 31, 2014, went missing and Aswini was said to be missing from January 3, 2015 from the same temple. Another girl, Monisha, daughter of Ganapathy of Anaiyur, near Sivakasi, missing from the Tiruchendur temple from June 27, 2014, was also rescued by the police and handed over to her parents.
Investigations with Ramar and Serman revealed the involvement of a Nagercoil-based woman, Rajammal. Based on this information, the special police team rushed to Ramanputhur, in Nagercoil, and arrested Rajammal. But her aide, Ramesh, is said to have escaped. While arresting Rajammal, the special police team also rescued another two-year-old boy kidnapped from Tiruchendur. The boy is yet to be identified, said Tirunelveli district police superintendent, Narendran Nair.
He added that the police arrested Thangapandian, son of Subramaniya Nadar of Sivanadanoor, Paramasivan, son of Athiyappan, Surandai, Lakshmi, wife of Athiyappan, and Meena, wife of Azhagappan of Ambasamudram, involved in child-trafficking along with Rajammal and Ramesh.
“Our investigation has revealed that this gang had the modus operandi of kidnapping children coming to Tiruchendur temple along with their parents,” said the Tirunelveli district police superintendent. They would target children sleeping near their parents in the temple corridor. “This gang sold male children for up to Rs1 lakh and female child for '60,000,” added the police officer.
