Hyderabad: Thirteen-year-old Puja was purchased by a couple from the Basheerabad mandal of RR district for just Rs 250 from Mumbai. She was forced to beg at the Tandur bus stand till the police rescued her. Cops arrested the couple and found the girl had been begging for the last three months.
Ranga Reddy SP Rema Rajeswari said the couple, V. Basamma and V. Ramulu, purchased the girl from an unknown person a year ago while they were working as labourers in Mumbai. The girl was an orphan and did not know anything about her parents.
The couple brought the girl to their village Manthati and made her a housemaid. “Later, they started sending her out to beg. In the morning the girl used to finish chores at home and then take a bus to the Tandur bus stand, where she used to beg till evening. She would return with the money and give everything to the couple except the next day’s bus fare,” said Basheerabad SI G. Abhinava Chathurvedi.
Police received a tip-off on January 7 and rescued the girl. The police booked a case against the couple for human trafficking and forced labour. The cops also arrested Basamma’s father V. Pentaiah who was forcing the girl to do household chores.
Puja was one of the 300 children who were rescued by Ranga Reddy police from forced labour and begging in the district. “We launched Operation Smile on January 1 and in a month over 300 children were rescued from child labour and begging and rehabilitated. Some of these children were missing from their homes,” said SP Rema Rajeswari.
“We had set up three teams for Vikarabad, Chevella and Tandur,” the SP added.
Ranga Reddy district police on Monday organised a free medical camp at the district police headquarters in Vikarabad for all the children.
