Bhubaneswar: A seven-year-old girl is sitting with her grandparents at Cuttack railway station. The grandparents step away briefly to fetch food. An elderly man notices the child, approaches her and walks away with her. Two days later, she was rescued after a 36-hour police operation involving multiple teams and extensive CCTV scanning.

Almost simultaneously, at the Chhatrapur sub-divisional hospital in Ganjam, a five-year-old differently-abled girl is with her grandmother. The grandmother steps away to find a doctor. A 41-year-old man, later identified as Dhruba Goud and previously jailed in a rape case, allegedly offers the child biscuits and a soft drink and walks her away from the hospital premises. She is eventually rescued after villagers recognise her from photographs circulated by police.

The common thread is chillingly simple: both children were not crying, resisting or travelling alone, they were quietly walking with an adult who had first won their trust with food.

Police eventually rescued both children, but the Cuttack case required a 36-hour operation, while the Ganjam girl was found only after the accused had moved her around 10 km from the hospital.

The successful rescue is a matter of great relief; the time taken to convert the first disappearance into a successful interception, however, puts the spotlight on a far more uncomfortable question: why is Odisha’s policing still largely switching into action after a child disappears, rather than preventing the child from being taken away in the first place?

The Six-In-Eight-Month Signal: Eatables Have Become A Predator’s Tool

A review of police reports that specifically mention very young girls being lured or taken away using chocolates, biscuits, soft drinks or other eatables shows a disturbing rise in the pattern.

Importantly, this is not an official NCRB category. The numbers below are a tracked count of cases reported with this specific modus operandi and should not be confused with the State’s total missing-girl or kidnapping figures. Because, the distinction matters here.

Year	police-reported cases involving “eatables lure”	Emerging pattern

2022

2

Isolated rural/localised cases

2023

3

More cases around vulnerable families and labour settlements

2024

2

Low verified case count but high social-media rumour activity

2025

4

Increasing references to schools, children left unattended and local predators

2026 — Jan-Aug

6

Sharp rise; hospitals, Anganwadi areas, neighbourhoods and railway/transit points emerge as vulnerability zones

The significance is not merely the arithmetic. From two reported cases in 2022 to six in just eight months of 2026, the frequency of this particular modus operandi has visibly increased in police disclosures.

And the profile of the victims is striking: girls below 10 years, often too young to understand danger, and in several cases vulnerable because they are momentarily separated from parents, grandparents or caregivers.

The broader child-missing picture makes the issue even more serious. NCRB data shows Odisha recorded 5,425 missing girl children in 2024 alone, and the backlog of cases over the years pushed the count to a massive 11,922 girls untraced still by the end of year 2024, dubiously ranking the State 3rd overall in the country.

The NHRC, in March 2026, also took suo motu cognisance of the reported increase in missing persons and trafficking, noting that Odisha had the highest reported trafficking cases involving minor boys and seeking a detailed response from the State’s Chief Secretary and DGP.

2026: Five Cases That Reveal The Predator Profile

1. Sundargarh – The Biscuit Lure

In April, a five-year-old tribal girl in Sundargarh was allegedly left alone while her parents were away collecting forest produce. A 57-year-old local man allegedly offered her biscuits, gained her confidence and took her inside his house, where she was sexually assaulted. Police arrested the accused after the family complained.

The case exposes the vulnerability created when parents working in informal livelihoods have no option but to leave very young children without continuous supervision.

2. Paradip –Chocolate, Drugged Drink And A Seven-Year-Old

In February, a seven-year-old tribal girl in the Paradip area was allegedly lured with chocolates by a local butcher. Police said the child was subsequently given a drink allegedly containing sedatives and sexually assaulted over several days. Local women intervened when the accused allegedly attempted to take the child into the cabin again.

This case is important because the alleged predator did not need to abduct the child from a crowded transport hub. He exploited a child who was already vulnerable in her neighbourhood.

3. Mayurbhanj – The Anganwadi Chocolate Trap

In July, a four-and-a-half-year-old girl attending an Anganwadi centre in Mayurbhanj was allegedly lured away with chocolate and taken to a house, where she was sexually assaulted. The child later returned home and disclosed what had happened. The victim’s mother approached police despite an alleged attempt at informal village-level mediation.

The case exposes another dangerous gap: the few metres immediately outside a child-care institution can become as vulnerable as the institution itself.

4. Cuttack Railway Station – The 36-Hour Escape Window

On August 29, a seven-year-old girl travelling with her grandparents disappeared from Cuttack railway station after the grandparents reportedly left her briefly while they went to fetch food.

CCTV showed the girl walking away with an elderly man. Commissionerate Police formed 10 teams and scanned footage across multiple railway locations. The girl was eventually rescued after RPF personnel at Kaipadar became suspicious of the man’s behaviour. The accused was later arrested at Balikuda railway station.

The rescue demonstrates the value of CCTV, RPF alertness and inter-agency coordination. But it also exposes the weakness of a system that first has to reconstruct the child’s journey after she has already crossed the station perimeter.

5. Ganjam Hospital – The Repeat-Offender Question

At Chhatrapur sub-divisional hospital, a five-year-old differently-abled girl was allegedly lured away with biscuits and a soft drink while her grandmother was looking for a doctor.

The accused, Dhruba Goud, was subsequently identified as a person who had earlier spent nearly four years in jail in connection with a 2011 rape case. Police reviewed CCTV, formed four teams and circulated the girl’s photograph. Villagers who recognised the child from the alerts helped intercept the accused and secure her rescue.

This case raises perhaps the biggest policing question of all:

How does a person with a previous rape conviction end up moving around a hospital, a place where children and vulnerable women are present in large numbers, without triggering any preventive surveillance?

The Common Thread: Hospitals, Platforms, Anganwadis – Predators Know The Blind Spots

Put the 2026 cases together and a disturbing pattern emerges.

The predator does not necessarily need a dark alley.

He can operate at a railway platform.

He can operate inside or around a hospital.

He can operate outside an Anganwadi.

He can operate in a village neighbourhood.

He can operate near a small shop or workplace.

And most importantly, he understands the psychology of a child below 10.

A chocolate, biscuit, packet of chips or soft drink can create enough trust for a child to follow an adult voluntarily.

That makes the traditional policing red flags ineffective.

A child who is walking calmly beside an adult does not look like an abducted child.

There is no screaming.

There is no struggle.

There is no obvious kidnapping.

By the time the family realises what has happened, the offender may already have crossed the immediate crime scene.

That is the policing gap.

CCTV today is overwhelmingly used as an investigative tool: the child disappears, police obtain footage, identify the route, trace the suspect and begin the chase.

But the emerging crime pattern demands a different philosophy:

CCTV must become a prevention tool, not merely an evidence-recovery tool.

Odisha already carries a heavy missing-child burden. The latest available national data show the scale of the problem, while the NHRC has specifically flagged trafficking and poor tracing concerns involving Odisha.

The question therefore is no longer whether Odisha has enough cameras.

The question is:

Can the police make those cameras think, alert and trigger intervention before the predator crosses the gate?

What Is Missing In Odisha? From Reactive Policing To Real-Time Child Protection

1. Railway Platforms & Bus Stands: Build A “Child Movement Alert Corridor”

Railway stations and bus terminals should be treated as high-risk child movement zones, not merely crowded public places.

The RPF’s Operation Nanhe Faristey offers an important operational model: frontline railway personnel are trained to identify vulnerable children, intervene and coordinate rescue. Odisha needs to push this further by integrating station CCTV, RPF, GRP, district police and Child Welfare Committees into a single real-time alert chain.

A practical system could work like this:

Child reported missing → photograph instantly uploaded → station control room alerted → CCTV operators freeze the relevant time window → suspect image circulated to platforms, exits, bus stands and nearby stations → RPF/GRP teams intercept possible movement.

The Cuttack rescue itself shows why this matters: the child was eventually located after moving through multiple railway locations.

The objective should be to reduce the 36-hour rescue window to minutes or a few hours.

2. Hospitals: No Child Should Be Able To Walk Out With An Unknown Adult

Hospitals are uniquely vulnerable because parents and grandparents routinely move between registration counters, doctors, pharmacies, diagnostic rooms and wards.

A predator needs only one distracted caregiver.

Every district hospital, sub-divisional hospital and major medical college should therefore have:

• CCTV coverage of paediatric and women’s waiting areas;

• a dedicated hospital security desk linked to the police control room;

• real-time monitoring of exits from child-sensitive areas;

• random identity checks when an unfamiliar adult is repeatedly interacting with children;

• an emergency “missing child” alert that immediately locks the relevant CCTV search window;

• trained hospital security personnel specifically tasked with child-protection surveillance.

The Ganjam case demonstrates the vulnerability starkly: the child was allegedly taken away while her grandmother was looking for a doctor, and CCTV became useful only after the disappearance.

3. Schools & Anganwadis: Close The “Recess Leak”

For children below 10, the school or Anganwadi gate is one of the most important safety barriers.

The basic rule should be simple:

A child cannot leave the premises with an adult merely because the adult claims to know the child.

Schools and Anganwadis should maintain a registered guardian list, with a low-cost digital gate-pass or QR-based verification system wherever feasible.

The technology need not be expensive.

A basic smartphone can scan a child’s ID or authorised pickup code.

If the person collecting the child does not match the authorised record, the gate remains closed and the school/Anganwadi worker alerts the designated police contact.

For Anganwadis, where very young children are involved, the rule should be even stricter:

No child leaves during operating hours without verified guardian authorisation.

The Mayurbhanj case demonstrates why the last few metres outside an Anganwadi require as much attention as the classroom itself.

4. Public Spaces: Move From CCTV Recording To Behavioural Alerts

The next generation of policing has to use video analytics, not just video storage.

The system should be trained to flag high-risk patterns such as:

• an adult repeatedly approaching several young children;

• an adult spending an unusually long period in a paediatric waiting area without a clear purpose;

• an adult leading a very young child towards a restricted exit;

• a child suddenly changing direction and following an unfamiliar adult;

• repeated interaction between a suspected offender and children in a defined vulnerable zone.

This should not mean automatically branding someone a criminal.

The technology should generate an alert for human verification, not an automated conviction.

That distinction is critical.

5. Released Sex Offenders: Monitoring Cannot End At The Prison Gate

The Ganjam case makes this issue impossible to ignore.

If police confirm that an accused person has a previous rape conviction, his release should not mean the end of police intelligence.

The National Database on Sexual Offenders provides a national framework for identifying convicted sexual offenders. The missing link is local operational use: beat-level officers, vulnerable-zone mapping and preventive intelligence around schools, hospitals, parks, transport hubs and child-care centres.

The goal should not be indiscriminate harassment of released persons.

It should be risk-based policing – knowing who the repeat offenders are, where they live, what vulnerable locations are nearby and whether they are repeatedly appearing around children.

6. Village-Level Policing: Activate The Human Network

Technology cannot cover every village road.

This is where Odisha’s village-level network can become the first line of defence.

Grama Rakhis, ASHA workers, Anganwadi workers, teachers, Mission Shakti groups, shopkeepers and panchayat representatives can be trained to identify suspicious behaviour.

An outsider repeatedly offering food to children.

A local man suddenly spending time around Anganwadis.

An adult repeatedly taking children away from the neighbourhood.

A person asking children about their parents’ working hours.

These should not be dismissed as harmless behaviour.

A simple district-level reporting mechanism – through a dedicated child-safety helpline/WhatsApp channel integrated with the police control room – could turn community observation into an early-warning system.

7. The Biggest Change: Police Must Track The First Five Minutes

The real test of Odisha’s child-protection system is not how quickly police can solve a kidnapping after 24 or 36 hours.

It is what happens in the first five minutes.

When a grandmother turns around and finds her granddaughter missing at a railway station, the entire station network should automatically shift into child-search mode.

When a grandmother reports a missing child inside a hospital, every exit should become a controlled observation point.

When an Anganwadi worker sees an unfamiliar adult taking a child away, there should be a direct police trigger.

When a school child tries to leave the premises with an unauthorised adult, the gate should stop the movement.

That is the difference between investigation and prevention.

The Warning From 2026

The six eatables-luring cases reported in the first eight months of 2026 should not be treated as six isolated crimes.

They reveal a common vulnerability.

Very young girls can be persuaded to follow an adult with something as ordinary as a biscuit or chocolate.

The predator does not need force at the beginning.

He needs only five minutes of invisibility.

And in several of these cases, that invisibility was available at precisely the places where the State should have had its strongest protective presence – railway platforms, hospitals, Anganwadi centres, schools and crowded public spaces.

Odisha has shown that its police can mount massive rescue operations, deploy multiple teams, scan hundreds of CCTV feeds and coordinate with villagers and railway personnel.

The next challenge is much harder.

Make the predator believe that the moment he approaches a child, the State will see him.

Until that happens, the question will continue to hang over Odisha’s child-safety system:

Are the predators becoming bolder – or is policing still too slow to make them afraid?
Also Read: Extortion Gangs Raise Their Head Again in Bhubaneswar: What Went Missing After Sarangi, Priyadarshi, Sanjeeb Panda's Crackdown Era?| Special Report