Chennai, Jan 25 (IANS) The Tamil Nadu police have rescued 75 children hailing from Manipur and Assam from two homes run by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Chennai and Kanyakumari.

On Sunday, the Kanyakumari police rescued 56 boys (22 from Assam and 34 from Manipur) from Bedesta Blessing Home near Kuzhithurai.

The Chennai police Saturday rescued 19 Manipuri children from a home here. The children were abused and malnourished.

The city police have arrested three agents from Manipur and are on the lookout for Immanuel who ran the Reach Children Home.

Both the homes were not registered under the Juvenile Justice Act and the police acted on the complaint of locals on seeing the kids being ill treated.

According to Kanyakumari police, the 56 boys were part of 150 children (boys and girls) who were brought from Manipur and Assam by a priest called Paul.

Initially, the children were put in a home in Red Hills near here. As Paul was not able to raise money to maintain the children, he had sent boys to Kanyakumari and the girls to a home in Bangalore.

According to Father Joseph Johnson, member of Child Welfare Committee in Tirunelvelli district, there are two more unresgistered homes in Tirunelvelli housing several children from Manipur.

Meanwhile, the department of social defense has formed a team to trace out unregistered homes in the state.