Abducted minor girl rescued from a Kolkata hotel; four traffickers arrested

Kolkata, Aug 27 (IANS) Kolkata Police on Thursday morning said that a police team rescued an abducted minor girl from a city hotel on Wednesday night.

The minor girl was abducted and locked in that city hotel room by her abductors with the intention of trafficking her and forcing her into the flesh trade. The cops have also arrested the four abductors, who lured the minor girl with the promise of getting her a job in the same hotel.

The four persons arrested in this connection have been identified as Asish Bhardwaj, Swaroop Das, Sheikh Shahabuddin and Muzaffar Hossain.

The investigating officials suspect that these four individuals are part of a major girl trafficking racket and currently they are being interrogated for information about others involved in the trafficking racket.

An insider from the city police said that the minor girl was recently appointed at a bar in the city for singing assignments. There she caught the attention of the four traffickers. They lured the girl with the promise of arranging a singing job for her against a much higher remuneration at another city hotel at Garfa in South Kolkata.

Thereafter, she was asked to come to the said hotel at Garfa in South Kolkata to finalise her job as a crooner there. However, after she reached the hotel, one of the abductors took her to a room at the same hotel and locked the room from outside.

She remained locked in the room for a couple of days and after that with the help of a hotel staff she somehow managed to inform one of her relatives about the matter. That relative immediately contacted the local police station and the cops immediately sprang into action.

“The cops conducted a raid at the hotel and rescued the abducted minor girl from the hotel room and also arrested the four persons involved in her kidnapping,” a city police officer said.

In the face of integration, the cops added, the four arrested men have confessed to their involvement in the abduction and they also admitted that their intention was to force her into the flesh trade.

“Fortunately, we got information about the abduction in time and hence were able to rescue her from the hotel room before she could be trafficked outside the state,” said the city police officer.

The cops will also question the singing bar authorities, where she used to sing earlier and question them on why they hired a minor girl as a crooner.

–IANS

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