BJP leader Juhee Chowdhury arrested for running child trafficking racket

The Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, Jalpaiguri remanded Juhee Chowdhury, BJP leader and former General Secretary of BJP State Mahila Samity, West Bengal, to 12-day Police Custody on Wednesday. She has been accused of being involved in a racket that had facilitated trafficking and illegal adoption of children in different parts of the globe.

Chowdhury who was on the run for the past few days was nabbed from a house in Batasi on the Indo-Nepal border under the Khoribari police station in the Darjeeling district on Tuesday night. Sources revealed that she had been hiding in a hamlet in Nepal a few kilometres away from the border near Batasi.

Three days ago she had taken shelter in this house in Batasi in a bid to contact her lawyers. Her calls were then traced by the CID, who then zeroed in on the house. The sleuths kept vigil in the guise of monks from a nearby temple. On Tuesday night they stormed into the house and nabbed Juhee.

She was arrested and kept at the Matigarah police station near Siliguri on Tuesday night before being moved to Jalpaiguri Chief Judicial Magistrate Court on Wednesday morning. A huge crowd had gathered at the court premises.

The CID sought a 14-day remand stating that there was a need to interrogate Chowdhury to find out links to others including key BJP leaders named by co-accused Chandana Chakraborty. The CID also want to take Juhi to different parts of the country where the child trafficking racket operated.

Juhi has been charged under different sections of the Indian Penal Code relating to human trafficking (370, 370 (v) cheating, forgery, fraud (420, 468) criminal conspiracy (120B) read with Sections 77, 80, 81 of the Juvenile Justice Act.

While being escorted out of the court premises Chowdhury stated "I want a CBI inquiry. I have been framed. It is a political conspiracy." She was then taken to the CID camp at Pintail Village on the outskirts of Siliguri town.

Meanwhile, the BJP leadership who had floated the political conspiracy theory alleging that BJP leaders were being framed to malign them, removed Juhee from the post of general secretary and her father Rabindranarayan Chowdhury from the BJP state committee.

CID sources stated that Rabindranarayan Chowdhury is also under the scanner. He is absconding too. The CID will be questioning Chowdhury and Chakraborty together to verify the allegations made by Chakraborty. Sources further state that they have ample evidence in the form of documents to implicate both Chakraborty and Chowdhury.