This story is from February 7, 2021

Agra: UP police rescue 3 tribal women from 3 states being 'auctioned'

Police in Agra have busted a human-trafficking syndicate and arrested 11 people, including two women, while they were taking three young tribal women, one each from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand, for "auctioning".
Agra: UP police rescue 3 tribal women from 3 states being 'auctioned'
Representative image
AGRA: Police in Agra have busted a human-trafficking syndicate and arrested 11 people, including two women, while they were taking three young tribal women, one each from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand, for "auctioning".
According to police, the tribal women - around 20 years old - belong to UP’s Sonbhadra, MP’s Singrauli and Jharkhand’s Garhwa districts.
They were lured on the promise of a job in an orchestra group. Instead, they were being forcibly married for prostitution after an open bidding of each between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1 lakh, police said.
The police received a tip-off from a Delhi based NGO Mission Mukti Foundation and nabbed the accused while they were being trafficked. Most of the suspects are from Sonbhadra district and one of them who managed the deal is from Agra.
On Saturday, SP (east) K Venkat Ashok told TOI that the work was divided among group members. Once lured with job offers, one such group looked after sourcing the women, while the other managed their transportation. A third group was involved in selling them.
Munna Lal from Agra’s Bah area was involved in auctioning these women in western UP districts of Etawah, Firozabad and Agra, the SP said.
Ramesh from Sonbhadra was involved in transportation and the two arrested women — Prema Devi and Asha — had lured them.
“We are now investigating how many women have been trafficked by them,” the SP said, adding that their target was women from poor families. The rescued women will be returned to their families, the SP further said.
Members of the NGO, who had contacted the cops, said the women were completely unaware of the trafficking group’s motive. During the counselling, rescued women told the members that they had come here to join an orchestra, but the accused forced them to marry some unknown men.
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