BENGALURU: A group of children standing at KSR Bengaluru railway station recently drew suspicion from the security personnel. Questioning revealed that the children were escaping from harassment, including forced labour, when they landed at the station Sunday.Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel stationed at Platform 5 were the first to notice the group of young boys unaccompanied by any adult. The children appeared nervous on seeing the RPF team and began acting in a suspicious manner. Upon enquiry, it was ascertained that all of them were minors. None of the 24 children could speak Kannada. On questioning, they revealed that they came from Araria district in Bihar. While rescuses of children at railway stations have been a regular occurrence in the city, such a large group generated suspicion.It was revealed that the boys reached Karnataka through a train two weeks ago with the consent of their parents. “They initially came to Tumakuru to carry out religious studies in a madrasa. It had not been more than 10 days, we believe,” an RPF officer told TOI.During the interrogation, the majority of the children said they were subjected to severe harassment, including being served insufficient food and physical assault.“Some children told us that they were beaten up and even forced into labour by making them carry bricks and other construction materials. They also revealed the name of an individual within the madrasa who is suspected to be responsible for this,” an RPF source said.All the rescued children were handed over to the District Child Protection Unit (DCPU), Bengaluru South.“A zero FIR has been registered because the incident happened in a different jurisdiction. They are looking into the labour and physical harassment angles. There are no visible marks on the body,” an RPF inspector explained.
