Traffickers Use TV Channel To Lure Northeast Girls

By Dwaipayan Ghosh

New Delhi, Jul 28 : A gang of inter-state traffickers has been trying to use the name of a wildlife, knowledge and travel television channel to lure girls.

The gang members have even typed 'offer letters with attractive salaries' bearing fake logos of the channel to attract girls from Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur and Tibetans. The channel has lodged a complaint with the south district police in this regard.

Karuna Gulyani, a representative of the channel said she had come across some pamphlets purportedly being distributed in south Delhi seeking to employ girls from Tibet and Nagaland to travel with the group's two leading channels - one of them dedicated to knowledge and the other to wildlife.

These unauthorized pamphlets also state that the girls will be paid a salary ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 per month.

The logos, claimed channel representatives, appeared to be so close to the genuine logos that they fear many girls may have already been duped.

It is worthwhile to mention here that Munirka, located close to the Qutub Institutional area, has a huge population of girls - mostly students and young professionals - who come from northeasten states.

What has surprised cops regarding the modus operandi of the gang is the social profiling - asking girls from a particular area to join services.

"An organized gang is just trying to make a fast buck,'' said an officer, adding that the means could be achieved through trafficking or duping the gullible.

DCP (south) Chhaya Sharma said she was aware of the complaint but investigations were only at a preliminary stage.

According to a Vasant Kunj police officer, a case will be registered only after the cops have analyzed the source of these pamphlets. Efforts are on to trace the printers of these pamphlets.

Gulyani has advised girls to ignore these posters as they are in no way involved with the employment drive of the channel.

"Please report such incidents to us immediately and do not be fooled by these pamphlets,'' said Gulyani.