Siliguri, June 2: Five girls from Nepal were rescued by Matigara police last night, hours before they were to be trafficked to Mumbai by a youth on the pretext of providing them with jobs.
The youth, Debesh Tamang, was also arrested from his rented house at Matigara near here and remanded in police custody.
“The 29-year-old Tamang brought the girls, all aged around 20, from the other side of the border and told them that they would be sent to Hong Kong and West Asia to work as domestic helps. Police received a tip-off that he had brought the girls to his rented house and they would be taken to Mumbai soon. We conducted a raid and rescued all the girls,” said Gaurav Sharma, the additional superintendent of police, Siliguri.
Tamang hails from Gorubathan under Kalimpong subdivision and had been staying at the rented house for two years.
“Initial interrogation suggests that the girls are from Morang and Sintury in Nepal. We did not recover passports or any other documents from their possession to show that they have got jobs abroad. A car, a mobile phone and a few contract forms were seized from Tamang,” said the ASP.
The police suspect that the youth was a member of a racket that is active in trafficking girls from Nepal. According to police sources, the girls are first brought to India through Panitanki and then taken to Mumbai by train. During interrogation, the police have got hold of the address of a Mumbai-based recruitment agency, which sends girls abroad.
“We have contacted the Maharashtra police to verify the arrested man’s statement and his activities in Mumbai. If the Nepal girls are sent abroad through an Indian agency, some valid documents are required to apply for passports and we have not recovered any such papers from the youth or the girls,” said Sharma.
Tamang was produced in the court of additional chief judicial magistrate here and remanded in police custody.
TT
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