Cuttack: Blowing the lid off the trafficking of a Puri woman to Madhya Pradesh on the pretext of providing her a job, the state Crime Branch (CB) Monday arrested five persons of a gang.
Apart from the latest incident, the accused Ram Krishna, Mina Das, Manorama Barik, Bidu Behera and Pravati Sahu of Puri were found involved in similar cases in the past, a senior CB official said.
According to the official, the victim, a resident of Bauria Slum in Puri’s Sadar police limits, was in search of a job when she came in contact with Krishna, who hails from Madhya Pradesh, and was residing in the village of the victim.
“Krishna lured the victim, a mother of four, into coming to Hyderabad where she would work in a private firm. However, Krishna took her to Janada village in Ashok Nagar police limits of Madhya Pradesh where he sold her to Dasrath Singh for Rs 55,000,” the official added.
The woman in her complaint stated that Singh had sexually exploited her after she rejected a marriage proposal by Singh.
The incident came to light after the victim mustered courage to call up her family and narrate her ordeal. Desperate attempts of the victim’s family to rescue her turned futile as they approached Singh on several occasions.
However, Singh released the victim after the intervention of Puri Sadar police. It was October 28 when the victim reached home and lodged a complaint with the CB which registered a case (22/18) under Sections 365, 366, 370 and 120B of the IPC and began a probe.
During the probe, DSP Nilima Panda established the connections of the five persons in the trafficking before arresting them.