Many children displaced by last year’s devastating earthquake were taken to India, a preliminary investigation by Nepali Police’s Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) shows.

Chief of CIB Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Nawaraj Silwal said they have begun collecting data of children from the 14 districts severely affected by the earthquake. “Given the sensitiveness of the investigation, details cannot be said now. But from what we have so far gathered indicates that many children who have left the districts have been taken to India,” said DIG Silwal, adding that a special team has been formed to investigate into the case.

The special CIB team has been collecting and verifying the data on children who left the quake-affected districts. The police probe was launched following revelations that Nepali children had been sold as slaves in the UK.

British newspaper The Sun reported on April 4 that gangs operating in Indian state of Punjab were selling Nepali children as young as 10

to rich families in the UK for £5,300 (Rs800,000) each.

That prompted the government to verify the news through its diplomatic channel and ramp up security at the border.

According to the Central Child Welfare Board (CCWB), the government body entrusted to monitor the movement of children in the country, 237 children have gone missing in the wake of the earthquake last year. Further suspicion on the trafficking had aroused after police rescued 195 children from Thankot in Kathmandu and Dhading district on June 9, 2015. The children, brought in from Lho Monastery of Lho Village in Gorkha, were travelling without the letter of the district CCWB office, which was made mandatory in a bid to curb child trafficking in the wake of the earthquake.