15 minor girls and boys from Odisha rescued, one woman held

Fifteen minor boys and girls of Odisha's Rayagada district were rescued from Delhi where they were forcibly made to work in hotels, police said.
The minors were lured by one Delhi-based Sarala Sethi in 2009, on the pretext of educating them, Inspector in-charge of Muniguda police station Diptikanta Pradhan, who along with the District Child Welfare Committee officials visited New Delhi to bring back the children to Muniguda today, said.
Sarala, a native of Tamil Nadu fluent in Hindi, English, Kannada and Tamil took 18 children, including five girls of the age group of 5-15 years from Litiguda, Tikirpada and Chandrapur villages under Muniguda area of tribal-dominated Rayagada district under a missionary promising their parents that their ward will be educated and rehabilitated properly, Pradhan said.

She imparted them education for sometime in her charitable organisation and managed to get donation from foreign countries, he added.
But after sometime, she employed three of the minors in a hotel in Himachal Pradesh and rest of the children in different hotels in New Delhi, Pradhan said.
Three after being allegedly tortured by employers, escaped and reached home in Muniguda on April 23 and narrated the story to their parents, who in turn lodged a complaint with the police, he said.
Police soon arrested Sarala when she visited Muniguda to get back those who had fled, Pradhan said, adding, that Sarala confessed her crime and the rescued children were handed over to their parents.

A case has been registered against Sarala under various sections of the IPC and Juvenile Justice Act. She was produced before a local court on April 24 which sent her to jail.