38 tribal women, children kidnapped from Rajasthan by MP villagers

In a brazen case of mass kidnapping, a group of over 100 people belonging to a Madhya Pradesh village allegedly abducted 38 tribal women and children from Rajasthan on suspicion that their men were involved in stealing their bikes, police said on Thursday.

The Rajasthan police, however, managed to secure the release of the kidnapped women and children from Madhya Pradesh within hours of the offence and arrested six of the alleged kidnappers and seized their arms and ammunition and the car used for the abduction on Wednesday afternoon.

The brazen offence of inter-state kidnapping of tribal women was committed in Unhel police station area of Jhalwar district in Rajasthan by the people of Kalasiya village under Alot police station of Ratlam district in Madhya Pradesh, Unhel police stations SHO Bhanwar Singh said.

Singh said several families of Kanjar tribe community live in makeshifts tents at the interstate border under his police station area. These tribal people are often suspected to be involved in various crimes in the area by locals, he added.

The provocation for this daring offence of mass kidnapping was the theft of a motorbike of someone belonging to Kalasiya village in the neighbouring Ratlam district, he added.

Following the theft, over 100 men of Kalasiya village, armed with guns, iron rods and lathis, reached Bamandevriya and Hajdia villages under Unhel police station area, where these tribal people lived, in a bus, a car and several motorcycles, said Singh.

They surrounded the makeshift tents of these tribal people and apparently wanted to round up men and threaten them against indulging in crime and recover their stolen bikes, said Singh.

But as there were no tribal community men found there, the Kalasiya villagers forced a total of 10 women, 20 minor girls and eight children of various age, into the bus and sped towards their own village in MP, said Singh.

After the Unhel police came to know of this audacious act, it organised a team and rushed after the speeding bus, said Singh, adding after the Kalasiya villagers found themselves being chased, they dropped the kidnapped women on way under the Alot police station area in MP and fled the scene, the SHO said.

After recovering the kidnapped women and children, the Unhel police lodged a criminal case against 100-odd people under various IPC sections related to kidnapping, rioting, illegal confinement and unlawful assembly besides various other sections of Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, said Singh.

The Unhel police also arrested six members of the villagers gang, travelling in a car and recovered a country-made pistol, two live cartridges, one sword and several iron rods from them, said Singh, adding the police also seized the car.

The SHO identified the arrested men as Suresh Singh alias Suraj Singh, Bahadur Singh, Surender Singh, Mahendra Singh, Narayan Singh and Guman Singh, all residents of Kalasiya village in MP.

He said the bus which was used to kidnap the tribal women was found to be belonging to Kishan Singh, a former sarpanch of Kalasiya village.

The entire operation to rescue the kidnapped women was guided by Additional Superintended of Police Rajesh Yadav and DySP Brijmohan Meena, the SHO said, adding the efforts are being made to nab the remaining 94 involved in the crime.

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