IPS Rakesh Sahoo takes on human trafficking in Gajapati, Odisha

In Gajapati, Odisha a silent fight against human trafficking is taking place. At the forefront of this is IPS Rakesh Sahoo who led the recent rescue of seven girls, including six minors from an alleged inter-state human trafficking racket. “Our mission is to dismantle the entire human trafficking network that has been operating from this region for nearly a decade” says Sahoo.

Recognizing Gajapati, a largely tribal, forested and mountainous district that has long been a soft target for traffickers. Low literacy and lack of local employment push many residents to migrate to metropolitan cities, a pattern agents exploit to lure young women with false promises of jobs “First they will employ them for some household work as domestic help. Later on, they will carry out some kind of physical assault or some kind of extortion”

The latest breakthrough came after a Gajapati family reported a young woman missing. During the investigation, it was found that she and a friend had allegedly been lured by an agent with false job promises and were reportedly sold for Rs 70,000. Acting on the intelligence gathered from informers, police laid a trap and captured the local middleman. This enabled them to trace the mastermind and coordinate a raid with Hyderabad Police, resulting in the rescue of seven victims and arrest of the accused. “We had activated our informers and laid a trap. We first caught the middleman, and that led us to the mastermind,” he explained.

While the victims were rescued safely and returned back to their families, one of the rescued minor girls was found to be seven months pregnant. Sahoo emphasizes that arrests are just one part of the fight. “The biggest irony was that while many people tried to intervene on behalf of the accused, very few asked what happened to the rescued girls” he said.

To provide them a brighter future and help them come out of this traumatic experience, the rescued girls are now receiving support through the Child Welfare Committee and the District Child Protection Unit. The minors have also been admitted to schools, while one survivor has been sent for vocational training to help her become financially independent.

Building on this recent crackdown and earlier rescue operations involving a father-son duo from bonded labour, coordinated with Andhra Pradesh Police. Sahoo has now expanded their outreach by activating village level intelligence through local representatives, women self-help groups and community informants to identify more victims and prevent further trafficking.

With intelligence led policing, inter-state coordination and equal emphasis on victim rehabilitation, Sahoo is taking head-on the vicious cycle breaking the cycle of trafficking at its roots.