Anantapur: Five minor girls rescued from Kadiri

Anantapur: Five minor girls from Donakarai mandal were rescued following an anonymous call by local people in Kadiri where they had been confined.

The girls were engaged by a middleman from Ongole Vemula Ravi who offered them an attractive wage for construction work two months ago.

The girls were then sent to Mysuru and Bengaluru and not allowed to return to their home town but were brought to Kadiri and kept there for about 10 days.

"Ravi hired a house at Kadiri and made the five girls stay in the house. After they were there for 10 days, people began noticing the situation of the girls and alerted the police through 100. A team of police raided the house and detained Ravi and rescued the five minor girls. They were shifted to a rescue home for women and children.

They were handed over to their parents in the presence of the child welfare committee of Rajahmundry on Thursday. The middleman Ravi who was arrested ten days ago got bail from the court," sources said.

There has been an alarming rise in human trafficking from the Rayalaseema and other parts of the state and also from Telangana and non-government organisations in the field have stressed the need to take stringent action against middlemen. Though, the girls were from Rajahmundry and no way connected to the interior part of Kadiri in Anantapur district, the middleman brought them to Kadiri and lodged them there for 10 days in a rented house.

Police said the CWC and women’s welfare department found no sexual abuse of the minor girls.