Thursday, 19 OCTOBER 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The Udham Singh Nagar police on Wednesday arrested a man named Irshad who was allegedly exploiting children under the pretext of operating a Madarsa. The accused has been absconding ever since the police rescued 24 children from his house in Pulbhatta area three days ago and arrested his wife from the spot. Irshad also went to Kashmir recently and the police are currently investigating all possible angles for his visit, said the senior superintendent of police of Udham Singh Nagar Manjunath TC. He said that some locals informed the police about a Madarsa being operated illegally in a three-storey residential building in the Pulbhatta area during a verification drive of outsiders there three days ago. A police team was sent there accompanied by the officials of other agencies concerned including the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and Anti Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) among others. “When the teams reached the spot to raid the premises, they found 24 children locked in a small dark room which had no ventilation. The victims were extremely scared and frightened. The police found a woman Khatoon Begum at the spot who operated the Madarsa along with her husband. The team asked her to show documents required for running a Madarsa but she failed to present a single document to support their claim. The police arrested her and started looking for her husband,” said SSP. It was revealed during interrogation that the accused acted inhumanely to children, physically exploited them and forced them to do every household work. The police did not find anything that could suggest that children were getting any education there. “Most of these children belonged to poor families of other states who were sent here to get education in Madarsa. Both accused also used to get a monthly fee of about Rs 500 from victims’ parents and their own children study in English medium schools,” said TC. He said that the CWC provided counselling to children and their statements were also recorded in the committee’s presence. The children were then handed over to their respective families after the CWC’s order. The SSP said that Irshad recently went to Kashmir claiming that he used to go to different states to get funding from businessmen and rich people in the name of running a Madarsa for poor children. “However we are yet to verify all these claims. We will find out the actual reason for which he visited Kashmir. The police have imposed all relevant acts against the accused. Besides this, we will soon impose the Gangster act on both accused and identify their illegal assets to act against them,” added SSP.
