Jaigaon (Jalpaiguri), Feb. 12: A six-year-old boy yesterday rescued his 11-year-old sister from the clutches of a suspected trafficker who had kept both confined in his house in Siliguri for three days.

Anupam and Maya (names changed) had fled their home in Madarihat, 105km from Jalpaiguri town, on Friday after they were allegedly scolded by their father for not studying.

Anupam is in Class I and his sister in Class IV.

The duo boarded a Siliguri-bound train around 3.30pm and met a saffron-clad “priest with long beard”.

Maya said: “He promised to take care of us. The three of us got off at Siliguri (140km from Madarihat) and took a rickshaw. His house was far from the station, in a deserted part of the town.”

The rickshaw fare was Rs 25, the children remembered.

“As soon as we reached his house, the man dragged me into a shed where there were three goats. I was tied to a chair and locked up,” said Maya.

Anupam was locked in a verandah. “We did not get anything but water to drink for three days and the man threatened to kill us if we raised the alarm,” the girl said. “He would untie me when I needed to relieve myself, but make me do it right in front of him.”

Maya added that she had seen a woman with her face covered come to the house and haggle with the man over the price for the children.

Yesterday, the man went out leaving the verandah door open by mistake.

Anupam got hold of a piece of wood used to bolt doors and broke open the lock of the shed and fled with his sister.

The children asked around for directions and reached the station. They claimed that a travelling ticket inspector helped them board the Capital Express around 12 noon and they got off at Hasimara.

“A man selling tea spotted us and asked us why we were standing all by ourselves. We told him about our plight and gave him the phone number of a neighbour,” Maya said.

The call got through and the father, a rickshaw-van operator, travelled 12km by bus to get to Hasimara.

Police said a hunt had been launched for the “priest”.