A 16- year-old ‘human trafficking’ victim rescued

New Delhi: A 16-year-old girl, victim of a suspected human trafficking racket, was rescued by a police team after a three-hour-long operation from south-west Delhi’s Tughlaqabad Extension area, police said on Tuesday.

The accused, identified as Sunil Kumar (28), had allegedly confined the minor girl in a room at Delhi’s Tughlaqabad Extension area and was trying to sell her off to maid agencies in Delhi, said DCP (Southeast) Mandeep Singh Randhawa.

The police are also investigating if Kumar is linked with any organized human trafficking racket. The victim is a native of Baghdogra in West Bengal. She was lured to come to Delhi on the pretext of a job and later sold off.

The police is now looking for a woman — suspected to be a minor – who had brought the victim to Delhi in connivance with Kumar, a police official said.

The search operation took place on Tuesday night after the police received a phone call from the victim, who reported that she had been abducted and was allegedly confined in a room at a crowded place near a mosque.

The location of the complainant was tracked at Tughlaqabad Extension and a police team was rushed there. Once the girl was rescued, the police laid a trap and arrested Kumar when he came to the room to check on her, the official said.

During investigation, it emerged that the victim happened to be the one about whom an NGO had communicated to the police a few days ago. When the girl went missing last week, the police in West Bengal had registered a case of abduction, the official stated.

Further investigation in the matter will be done by West Bengal police, the official added.