The Madhya Pradesh Police have successfully dismantled a child trafficking gang operating in the state, apprehending five individuals, with an ongoing search for a woman doctor suspected to be the kingpin. The case came to light when two minor girls were kidnapped from a temple during the Navratri festival in Bhopal.
The Bhopal Police launched an intensive investigation, reviewing over 200 CCTV camera footage to locate the culprits. This led them to the English Villas Society in Kolar, where a raid on Tuesday resulted in the rescue of the kidnapped girls. The police arrested Archan Saini, her live-in partner Nishant, Suraj, and Muskan.
It was revealed during interrogations that the group had been running a child trafficking racket for several years and was connected with a Delhi-based gang. The hunt for the suspected kingpin, a woman doctor, is ongoing, and investigations will extend to other states where the gang may have operated. In 2022, an average of 32 children were reported missing daily in Madhya Pradesh, according to a report by the NGO ‘Child Rights and You.’