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Assam Police bust racket, rescue girls forced to marry older men in Rajasthan
Assam Police investigators said on Thursday that Leela Ram, who married one of the two girls after paying ₹4 lakh, has been arrested and brought to Assam from Rajasthan
The Assam Police have busted an inter-state human trafficking racket and rescued two girls trafficked, sold, and forced to marry older men in Rajasthan, investigators said on Thursday. Leela Ram, who married one of the two girls after paying ₹4 lakh, has been arrested and brought to Assam.
Numal Mahatta, the police superintendent of Assam’s Cachar, said Rupali Dutta and Ganga Ganju from Barak Valley were the prime accused. “They are absconding and their numbers have been traced outside Assam. We will arrest them soon and anyone involved in this racket will face action.” Mahatta said they were analysing all the missing reports as a part of further investigation. “Our operation against human trafficking will continue.”
Mahatta said the racket targeted Assam’s tribal girls. He added they launched an operation after a tea garden worker on January 24 registered a complaint about the disappearance of his 15-year-old daughter.
Mahatta said police found another girl of the same age was also missing but returned home. “Before disappearing, the girls met some women social workers offering jobs. We followed the pattern and discovered the racket targeting minor girls of tea gardens across Assam,” Mahatta said.
The girl, who returned home, said she was offered an attractive job and income and two of them agreed to take a risk and fled home on January 5. She added they were taken to Hyderabad and then Rajasthan where they were asked to marry older men. Police said one of the girls escaped and returned home via Delhi.
Mahatta said they formed an investigation team based on the girl’s statement and took the help of the Rajasthan Police. The investigators traced the location of a phone number the second girl had called from. They found her at the home of one Leela Ram, who said he bought her for ₹4 lakhs, in a village near Jaipur. Ram was arrested and brought to Assam.
Another girl in Rajasthan’s Manpura reported she was also trafficked from Assam’s Sribhumi district and forced into marriage. Police in Sribhumi found her family’s missing complaint and based on that she was produced before a Rajasthan court.
Mahatta said the court gave the custody of the two girls to Assam Police. “We have identified more people involved in the human trafficking racket.”
