Mumbai: The Govandi Shivaji Nagar police has arrested the manager of a cap factory and started searching for its owner who is absconding after finding 10 to 15-year-old children having been brought from UP and Bihar on the pretext of giving them an education and forced into labour work at the factory.
According to officials, these children were brought from Bihar and UP. After receiving a tip-off about the cap factory, the Shivaji Nagar police raided it Sunday night when it found minor children sleeping on the factory’s mezzanine floor.
A police official said, “Upon raiding the place, we found these children and called the factory manager to ask about them. He could not give a proper answer. Then our team asked the children who started sobbing. We immediately arrested the manager and have initiated a search for the owner.” The accused manager identified as Mohammad Hafiz (27) and the absconding owner identified as Bashir Raeen have been running the factory for the past 10 years.
PI Sachin Sanap said, “We asked the children who told us that they were brought here on the pretext of imparting a good education. The kids are from UP and Bihar and have been here for the past eight months. The owners had employed them for cleaning, washing utensils, and doing artistic work on caps and some children had been given kitchen work. The working hours were from 5am to 10.30pm. The accused have been booked under the Child Labour Act, 1986. The children have been presently accommodated at a shelter in Govandi. They will be handed over to their parents, through the state child welfare committee.”
