GUWAHATI, July 8: Guwahati Police busted an inter-state human trafficking racket, arresting four persons hailing from Assam, Bihar, and West Bengal, rescuing two minor girls and preventing the abduction of another, a senior official said.
Guwahati Police commissioner Diganta Barah on Monday said an FIR was lodged at Bhangagarh police station on June 29 by a woman who said her daughter and another minor girl had gone missing.
According to the woman’s complaint, her daughter had been demanding a new mobile phone and, upon refusal, went to her friend’s house.
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“Thereafter, both the girls went missing. We immediately launched a probe to trace them,” Barah said.
He said while investigation was on, one person called the brother of the victim and demanded Rs 30,000 for her release.
“The call was traced to Purnia in Bihar. Consequently, a police team from Bhangagarh was dispatched to Purnia from where they apprehended the caller and rescued both the girls,” he said.
Commissioner Barah said the girls, planning to travel to Delhi, encountered a man at Guwahati railway station who offered to help them.
“That person handed over the two girls to a couple in Basistha locality of Guwahati. Along with another woman from Panjipara in West Bengal, they took the girls to Siliguri by bus and sold them to another person in Bihar for Rs 1,10,000,” he added.
The girls were then transported to Purnia and forced to work in a brothel at Rauta in Bihar.
“With sufficient evidence against the culprits, police arrested four persons,” he added.
Investigation also revealed that the woman from West Bengal had been staying with the Guwahati-based couple and was planning to traffic another girl to the brothel in Bihar.
“All the four accused have been produced before the judicial magistrate and placed on police remand. Investigation confirmed that the case involves human trafficking, where girls are lured and subsequently sold into brothels,” he added. (PTI)
