Kendrapada, Aug 19 (UNI) Six child labourers, rescued by Cuttack railway police from two middlemen, were handed over to Mahakalpada police on Friday last.

Police today said acting on a tip off, the railway police arrested two middlemen and rescued the six children from them while they were about to board a Tamil Nadu-bound train from the Cuttack station.

Mahakalpada police station officer-in-charge R R Sahu said the arrested have been identified.

The rescued children were Bengali-speaking minor boys and belonged to Jamboo areas in the district and have been handed over to their parents.

The middlemen were produced before a local court here yesterday under Juvenile Justice Act and remanded to jail custody.

Police said the minors were lured by the accused on the pretext that they would be suitably engaged in a Tamil Nadu based weaving mill with a lucrative pay offer with free boarding and lodging.

The boys left the village on August 15 last without informing their parents, who made frantic search to trace them but in vain.

One of the parents lodged an FIR with the Mahakalpada police station alleging that his son and five others were missing.

UNI