Child trafficking gang busted

DSP says they stumbled upon the gang including a woman in the course of search for a 7-year-old in Kovvuru

Police teams conduct raids and save four missing children besides seizing `3.10 lakh in cash and mobile phones

Eluru: West Godavari district police busted an inter-district child trafficking gang at Kovvuru and saved four children from their clutches. Addressing a press conference here, District Superintendent of Police Bhaskar Bhushan said acting on a complaint of child missing case, Kovvuru police started investigation and took Godi Durga Malleswara Rao and Tuli Appanna of Rajahmundry into their custody at Kovvuru bypass road on Thursday afternoon.

During interrogation, the two accused confessed that they kidnap children and basing on the information police teams raided the houses of members of the inter-district child kidnap racket. The Kovvuru police team headed by Sub Inspectors D Ganga Bhavani, S S S Pavan kumar, C C S Sub Inspectors K Venkataramana, Srinivasa Singh and their personnel conducted raids on the houses of the other accused.

Along with Durga Malleswara Rao and Appanna the police teams arrested Althi Mallikharjun Rao, Vadde Satyvani, Yenni Koteswara Rao of Rajahmundry, Chitiboyina Varalakshmi of Visakhapatnam, Angi Govinda Raju of Kothavalasa (Visakhapatnam district), Pasalapudi Rambabu, Kovvuru, Vadde Venkata Ramana Kumar, Rajahmundry, Kosuri Bapiraju, Dowleswaram (Rajahmundry rural mandal).

Actually, the Kovvuru police launched a manhunt to rescue the child of Puli Anji and his wife Durga who are residing opposite Kovvuru Railway station on December 8 last year, SP said. He said when the wife and husband were fast asleep, Mallikharjun Rao and Appanna took away their seven-year-old child. On a complaint, Kovvuru police checked the CC cameras arranged in front of railway station and found two culprits taking away the child on a motorcycle and alerted other police stations to nab them.

The SP further added that the Kovvuru police also obtained the call details, tower dumps on this missing case as Kovvuru Circle Inspector P Prasada Rao received tip-off about the gang, SP added. On interrogation, the culprits admitted that they used to sell the children below the age of one year after kidnapping. Godi Malleswara Rao, the first accused, is running a teashop at Rajahmundry and befriended fifth accused Koteswara Rao and began to kidnap children.

Later, they formed a gang with the other accused, SP added. The gang including women used to kidnap children below the age group of one particularly from the homeless people. They kidnapped a seven-year-old boy in Kovvuru town and handed over to Satyavani of Rajahmundry. They sold away the child for Rs 1.5 lakh and the gang also kidnapped a 8-months-old-boy of Chidisetti Nukaraj, Suvarna at Rajahnagaram near Rajahmundry on July 9, while he was playing outside the house and sold away to Lokireddy Venkataramana of Jangalapalem for Rs 2.5 lakh.

The gang also kidnapped a one-month-old boy from Gunji Simhadri, Annapoorna couple at Peddapuram on July 17 last year and sold it to Ravva Nani Babu of Yanam for Rs 1.5 lakh. Similarly, the gang sold a 4-month-old boy to D V V Ramarao and Hemamani for Rs 1.5 lakh citing financial troubles. Atlast, the police saved all the four children along with 2 motorcycles, Rs 3.10 lakh cash, seven mobile phones. The SP commended the police team including the constables and home guards for their efforts in busting the inter-district gang.