PASSENGER'S TWEET LEADS TO RESCUE OF 26 MINOR GIRLS

Twenty-six minor girls were rescued by the Government Railway Police (GRP) and Railways Protection Force from the Muzaffarpur-Bandra Awadh Express on Thursday after a tweet from a passenger alerted them to the situation.

On July 5, a passenger on board the train tweeted that he was travelling in the S5 coach of the train and noticed a gang of girls crying and looking uncomfortable.
 

Reacting to the tweet, officials in Varanasi, as well as Lucknow, swung into action and within half an hour started investigating the matter. The GRP at Gorakhpur coordinated with Childline along with the anti-trafficking unit of the police.

Two RPF jawans in plainclothes boarded the train at Kaptanganj and escorted them to Gorakhpur, cite media reports.

"26 girls were found with two men, aged 22 and 55 years. All of them are from West Champaran in Bihar. The girls were being taken from Narkatikyaganj to Idgah. When questioned the girls were unable to answer anything convincingly, so they have been handed over to the child welfare committee," quoted media reports. The girls were aged between 10 and 14 years.