Ahmedabad: A boy who went missing from Sola in 2022 was allegedly abducted, sold for Rs 10,000, and forced to work as a bonded labourer for more than four years, police said. He was 14 when abductors took him.His rescue by the city crime branch and Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) helped police save two other minor boys, whose bonded labour allegedly fetched their families Rs 500-1,000 a year.The Sola case dates back to July 13 of 2022, when the boy’s mother approached local police after he went missing. The crime branch and AHTU took up the search and, acting on information received during the probe, traced the teenager to Nava Nadisar village in Godhra, Panchmahal.Two men — labour contractor Dinesh Kabildar, 47, and cattle herder Bharat Bharwad, 35 — were arrested.A senior crime branch officer said the teenager had been working at a construction site near the Sola flyover when Kabildar allegedly noticed him. Police suspect Kabildar abducted the boy and subsequently sold him to Bharwad for Rs 10,000.The boy was allegedly taken to Nava Nadisar and made to work there.Police found the other minor boys at the same location. According to police, Bharwad and his brother Ranchhod oversaw the children’s bonded labour.The rescued boys came from families dependent on casual labour. One of the children was from Vadodara, and his parent was reportedly unwell. Police said the family had been receiving about Rs 500 a year.After their rescue, the children said they wanted to return home. Police reunited the minors with their kin.Kabildar and Bharwad have been arrested. Police are now probing the circumstances surrounding the third child’s alleged abduction and whether more people were involved in the suspected child-selling and bonded-labour ring.
