Telangana Police leads in anti-human trafficking operations

As per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data released recently, Telangana Police registered 391 cases in 2022 and rescued 704 persons, including 666 women and girls.

Hyderabad: With 30 Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTU), the Telangana Police is leading in the country in detecting cases of human trafficking and rescuing the victims.

As per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data released recently, Telangana Police registered 391 cases in 2022 and rescued 704 persons, including 666 women and girls, during operations taken up across the State.

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Of the 666 women who were trafficked from different parts of the country to the State, 646 were forced into prostitution by the organisers. The police arrested 1,019 suspects in 391 cases. During the previous years, i.e., in 2020, the police registered 184 cases while in 2021 the numbers went up to 347.

A senior official associated with anti-human trafficking work pointed out that the AHTU teams of Telangana Police were well-trained to gather intelligence and conduct operations effectively. Due to the foolproof plans, the police were able to rescue women who were being exploited under the garb of escorts, beauticians, masseurs, junior artistes, etc., he said.

The women rescued by the AHTU teams were from different States like Maharashtra, West Bengal, Haryana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and North Eastern parts. The police also rescued nine women from Bangladesh and nine others who were from other countries.

However, the conviction rate in the human trafficking cases had been low and a majority of the suspects involved in the cases were acquitted by the courts. The Telangana Police officials said the low conviction rate was because the victims do not appear before the court and return to their native places during the trial period or turn hostile due to the fear of the organisers.

However, the police said after noticing the low convictions, they started organizing training for the Sub-Inspectors and Inspector rank officials to build strong cases and ensure convictions in human trafficking cases.