Police have arrested seven individuals on charges of transporting children to the Capital without acquiring permission from the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) in the district. Acting on a tip-off, the Central Child Welfare Committee had rescued 46 children of Ri Gaun and Jharlang VDC of Dhading Besi, the district headquarters of Dhading, on May 7. Indian nationals Labi Bhutia and Dawa Syangbo Bhutia, who was living in Lalitpur and working for a Christian missionary, Simora Lama of Lalitpur-3, Kuber Rai of Imadol, Jung Bahadur Tamang of Jharlang-3 in Dhading and Anijar Tamang of Ri Gaun-4 have been taken into custody on charges that they engaged in human trafficking.

Sixteen people including 13 children from ward-4 of Ri VDC and the remaining from Jharlang were being taken to Kathmandu with the promise of enrolling them in a good school. The arrestees were using a school bus (Ba 2 Kha 6855) belonging to Nirmal Boarding School based in Lalitpur district for transporting the 21 boys and 24 girls. Some half a dozen among the rescued children are girls below 16 years of age. The rescued children have already been returned to their parents, Women and Children Officer at the CWC Sabitri Thapa Rawal said. A ban has been imposed on children travelling from one district to another without permission from the District Children Welfare Committee headed by the Chief District Officer. Children, however, can travel with their parents.