Mumbai: In a major action against child labour, the Charkop Police raided an imitation jewellery manufacturing unit in Kandivali West and rescued 13 minors, Mumbai police officials said on Thursday.

The rescued children are reportedly between 13 and 17 years of age.

Mumbai Police conducted the operation at a unit identified as ‘Jhahara Fashion Era’, located in the Charkop Industrial Estate. According to preliminary investigations, minors were allegedly employed at the facility to manufacture imitation jewellery and bangles.

The police said the children were allegedly made to work for nine to 10 hours a day and were not paid adequate wages. All 13 children reportedly hail from different districts of West Bengal.

Investigators also uncovered another disturbing detail during the raid: The children were living at the workplace itself. The owner and operator of the unit reportedly failed to produce valid documents verifying the ages of the children.

The police have detained the unit’s owner, Ankit Kumar Mahendra Rawal, and its operator, Saminur Motiyar Rahman Shaikh. A case has been registered against both under relevant provisions of the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act and the Juvenile Justice Act.

Following the rescue, the 13 minors were handed over to the department concerned for further care and necessary action.

The police are now investigating who was responsible for bringing the children from West Bengal to Mumbai and whether a larger network involved in child labour is operating behind the racket.

Under Indian law, the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, which was amended in 2016, prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 in all occupations and processes, subject to certain exceptions, including helping in non-hazardous family enterprises after school hours or during vacations.

The law also prohibits adolescents between the ages of 14 and 18 from working in hazardous occupations and processes.

Children are permitted to assist their families or family enterprises only under specific conditions, provided the work is non-hazardous and does not adversely affect their education.

Article 24 of the Indian Constitution prohibits the employment of children in factories, mines and other hazardous occupations, while Article 21A guarantees free and compulsory education to children between the ages of six and 14.

Kolkata: The Hooghly Rural District Police in West Bengal arrested Uttam Kundu, the former chief of Tarakeswar Municipality, who had been absconding, said officials on Thursday.

Kundu, currently part of the rebel faction of the Trinamool Congress led by Ritabrata Banerjee, was arrested on various charges, including corruption and extortion.

He will be presented at a district court in Hooghly later on Thursday.

Kundu was absconding for quite some time. After being tipped off by their sources, a team from the Hooghly Rural District Police reached Kolkata late Wednesday night and arrested him from a hideout in the city.

A state police officer said that Kundu was accused of extorting Rs 40 lakh from a Kolkata-based businessman, Rajesh Agarwal, during the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress regime. He is also accused of forcibly occupying an under-construction flat and also has charges of involvement in illegal land-grabbing.

It is learnt that based on a complaint filed by Agarwal after the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly polls, in which the Trinamool Congress faced a landslide defeat, the Hooghly Rural District Police registered an FIR against the former Tarakeswar Municipality chairman. Since then, Kundu has been absconding.

At one point, Kundu was the president of the Trinamool Congress’ trade union wing, Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress (INTTUC), and Ritabrata Banerjee was its state president.

Hence, after the Assembly polls, when Trinamool Congress split into two factions — one led by former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the other by Ritabrata Banerjee — Kundu promptly joined the second group.

For his loyalty, Kundu was made the president of the rebel faction in the Arambagh organisational district. However, despite joining the rebel faction, Kundu maintained that he still considered Mamata Banerjee as his supreme leader.

Kolkata: Tension broke out at Jadavpur University (JU) campus in South Kolkata on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday over clashes between the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), the CPI(M)’s students’ wing and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

The tension between the two rival students’ unions erupted over the general body meeting of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students’ Union (FETSU).

The SFI has claimed that the ABVP has been trying to take control over the JU since the formation of the new state government in West Bengal, mobilised outsiders within the university campus and resorted to vandalism.

The ABVP, on the other hand, has accused the SFI, assisted by activists of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist)- affiliated Democratic Students’ Organisation (DSO), of launching an attack on the ABVP office-bearers inside the campus in the guise of a general body meeting.

Some of the students injured in the clashes are currently under treatment at the nearby K.P.C. Medical College and Hospital.

The local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator from Jadavpur Assembly Constituency, Sarbori Mukherjee, an actress-turned-politician, arrived at the hospital on Thursday morning to enquire about the injured students admitted there.

Both the rival groups have lodged FIRs at the local Jadavpur Police Station over the incident. At the same time, both the rival students’ wings have announced massive protest demonstrations on Thursday over the issue within the campus.

At the time the report was filed, no one had been arrested in connection with the clashes that broke out in the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday.

According to the ABVP’s central working committee member, Subhabrata Adhikari, the attack on their office-bearers was orchestrated not just by SFI activists but also by students affiliated to other Left-wing student groups, including those having links with Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) groups.

On the other hand, SFI’s general secretary, Srijan Bhattacharya, said the SFI was nowhere to be found in the entire mess. “What I heard is that the ABVP activists aided by local BJP associates resorted to vandalism within the campus. Why is ABVP so scared to face elections and democratically take control of the students’ body in JU?” Bhattacharya questioned.