The Odisha Police have busted an interstate human trafficking racket, rescuing a woman and six young girls from Hyderabad while arrested two suspected traffickers, authorities said on Wednesday.
The rescue operation was launched following a thorough investigation into a missing person’s report involving a woman from the Adava police station limits in Gajapati district, police said.
According to the complaint filed by a family member, the woman had been unaccounted for since June 21.
Police informed that the woman managed to call her family on June 24, revealing that a man identified as Iswar Kusulia from Rayagada had enticed her and a companion with false promises of lucrative employment.
“He asked me to meet him at Birikote within the Adava police limits and subsequently took me to his home in Gumukudi village under the Muniguda police station. Afterward, he sent me to Hyderabad promising me a job opportunity there,” the rescued woman recounted.
R Udayagiri SDPO Rakesh Sahoo stated that the probe uncovered that instead of providing jobs, Kusulia had allegedly sold a woman and a girl to a buyer named Chandra, alias Sarita Jain, alias Saritha Lunawat, for a sum of Rs 70,000.
“The victims alleged that they were wrongfully confined, subjected to physical and mental torture, deprived of their mobile phones and forced to engage in immoral activities,” Sahoo said.
During the questioning, the victims further disclosed that numerous other girls had been lured from various regions under the exact same pretext of work opportunities and were being similarly exploited, indicating the existence of an organised interstate human trafficking racket, he said.
Acting on specific information, a specialised unit from the Gajapati police, working in tandem with the Hyderabad Police, executed a raid on the female suspect’s property in Hyderabad, successfully rescuing seven captives – six minors and one woman – who were being held against their will.
The rescued victims were brought back safely and reunited with their families, police said.
Sahoo said the two accused — Iswar Kusulia and Chandra alias Sarita Jain alias Saritha Lunawat — were arrested and produced before a court, which remanded them to 14 days’ judicial custody.
