Bihar sees sharp spikes in sex crimes against minors, human trafficking

Patna, Oct 15 : Sexual crime against minor children are rising in Bihar with the state police registering 160 cases every month since August this year.

Elaborating the cases registered under the Pocso Act, ADGP, HQ, Jitendra Singh Gangwar said that 1,283 cases registered in Bihar till August 31.He also said that charge sheets were filed in 1,132 cases and compensation given to 490 victims.

The cases keep continuing against minors, especially girl children in September and October as well.

On September 30, a 14-year-old girl was gang raped by 6 persons in a village on the outskirts of Patna.

The victim went out to relieve herself and a youth kidnapped her and called 5 of his friends.

They had taken to an agricultural field, where they consumed liquor and sexually assaulted here one by one in a drunken state.The victim, after the sexual brutalization, went unconscious, and the accused fled from the place leaving her abandoned.

On August 28, police in Bhagalpur arrested 6 persons on the charge of gang raping a Class 7 girl for three days.

As per the statement of the victim, she went to meet her friend but the accused kidnapped her midway.

They took her to a room and held captive for two days even as they raped her one by one.After committing the crime, they changed the location and brutalised her as well.

On August 25, a minor teenage girl was raped and murdered in Bihar’s Samastipur district.

The girl was lured by a youth, sexually assaulted and forcibly fed poison.The victim was found unconscious at the scene in her own village which comes under Mufassil police station.

The family members of the victim admitted her in Sadar hospital Samastipur where doctors referred to the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) for better treatment.She succumbed during the treatment on August 28.

The cases in 2023 till August were higher in comparison to 2022 when police registered 149 cases, on an average under the Pocso Act.Police registered a total of 1,794 cases in 38 of Bihars 45 police districts.

ADGP Gangwar however also claimed that the state police filed the charge sheets against the accused in 1,552 cases and compensation was given to 889 victims.

The cases under the Pocso Act in 2021 were 125, on an average, per month, Gangwar said that a total of 1,508 cases registered in the different police stations of the state and charge sheets were filed in 1,213 cases.Compensation was given to 995 victims.

The cases of human trafficking and child labourers are also spiking this year.

Bihar Police registered 22 cases on an average every month till September this year.

The ADGP said that a total of 198 cases of human trafficking were registered in Bihar in the last 9 months.

"We have rescued 215 male and 102 female victims during this period.

The male victims are generally trafficked for the job of labourers and majority of them are minor boys while the females were trafficked for flesh trade and other activities like domestic help," Gangwar said.

In 2022, Bihar Police registered on average 17 FIRs per month, making a total of 207.Police rescued 507 males and 152 females from the clutches of human traffickers.

In 2021, Bihar police registered 111 FIRs under the relevant sections in 12 months or 9 cases registered every month.

The state police rescued 331 male and 149 females from the clutches of human traffickers.

In 2020, the cases were only 75 in 12 months wherein 247 males and 102 females were rescued.

ajk/vd