By PTI
JAMSHEDPUR: Two women and a minor of Sabar tribe, who were tarfficked to Madhya Pradesh , were rescued by East Singhbhum district police and five accused, including a woman were arrested, a senior police officer said here on Saturday.
The women were sold by a resident of Hatiapata village in Ghatsila sub-division of the district in connivance with an associate from Odisha, said senior superintendent of police M Tamil Vanan.
An FIR had been filed by the father of the Sabar woman stating that she and four others besides a minor girl of the tribe, all residents of Sabar Bustee at Pahadpur village, had been lured by the main accused on the promise of a job at a bangle factory in Madhya Pradesh two months ago.
Unable to get any news of his daughter since her departure, the man had approached the police and filed the FIR, the SSP said.
Following this, a special police team headed by deputy superintendent of police (Musaboni) Chandrasekhar Azad was sent to Madhya Pradesh on January 6 and the three were rescued during investigation and the five accused were arrested, he said.
The Sabar tribe belong to the Munda ethnic group and were classified as one of the ‘criminal tribes’ under Criminal Tribes Act 1871 and suffer from social stigma in modern times.
Vanan said the women were lured away on the pretext of giving them jobs and then forced into flesh trade.
They were kept confined in a hotel and their phones were snatched away by the accused before they were sold in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
The woman who was arrested has been involved in trafficking for the past 25 years.
She hails from East Singhbhum district and lives in Madhya Pradesh, he said.
One team each of the district police are still camping in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to trace the two women, who are yet to be rescued, Vanan added.
Besides the main accused, all the arrested are residents of Madhya Pradesh.
