A 16 year old girl rescued from India where she was taken for human sacrifice

A special team of Nepal Police has rescued a teenage girl from India on Thursday on the suspicion that she had been taken across the border for human sacrifice. The 16 year old girl, name not disclosed, had been staying at her maternal uncle’s home after her parents got divorced, according to Nepal Police sources.

Her family submitted an application with the police on December 21 seeking help to search for her after she went missing from her maternal uncle’s home on December 3.

The Anti-Human Trafficking Bureau, Babarmahal, which has been investigating the case, said it has arrested six Nepalis including five women for their alleged involvement in trafficking the 16-year-old to a Tantrik Baba in India, from Dhading district, 60 km West of Kathmandu.

“The preliminary investigation has shown that all five women had connection with the Tantrik Baba. ” Dan Bahadur Malla, the bureau spokesperson revealed during a press briefing in Kathmandu on Friday.

He said one woman had accompanied the teenage girl from Kathmandu to New Delhi, using the road via the Sunauli border on December 24. Now after the rescue the victim has been sheltered at a non-government organisation in Kathmandu.

“The girl was taken to three Tantraik babas for examinations, before she was scheduled to be handed over to the biggest Tantrik on Purnima, the full moon day that falls on Sunday,” said Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Jeevan Kumar Shrestha, the chief of the bureau.

“The girl, a seventh grade student, was lured to go to India with the promise of a huge sum of money after getting blessings from the biggest tantrik in India,” said the senior police officer. The girl was held captive on the first floor of a building at Baprola Vihar Galli No-2, New Delhi; from where she was rescued with the hele of the Indian police.

The tantriks who demanded Nepali girls had set specifics: a pre-adolescent 5.4 feet high, without any scar or tattoo on her body.

Nepal Police officials said, based on their preliminary investigation, that the girl was a possible target for human sacrifice. “Because the girl’s body was examined twice, first before she was taken to India and then after reaching there,” said the official.

The girl, who was flown to Kathmandu from New Delhi on Thursday via an Air India flight, was handed over to the Anti-Human Trafficking Bureau. Earlier in 2019 too police had rescued a girl suspected to have been taken for sacrifice from the Jogbani border. Six traffickers had been arrested at that time.

Also on Thursday, the Anti-Human Trafficking Bureau rescued 12 other Nepali women from India, saving them from being trafficked to Ethiopia via Dubai on tourist visas.