Basanti and Raju with RPF personnel at Alipurduar Junction station. Picture by Anirban Choudhury

Alipurduar, Feb. 19: Two 10-year-old girls were rescued from Alipurduar Junction station yesterday while they were being trafficked to Delhi. RPF personnel also arrested two traffickers from the spot.

All four of them will be forwarded to the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court here tomorrow with a plea that the girls be returned to their parents.

Rupa Chhetry and Mani Oraon (names changed), both students of Class IV in a school at Rahimabad, were returning from the institution at 3.30pm when they met Basanti Lohar. The 22-year-old claims that she works in Delhi.

Basanti, a resident of Mainabari in the Samuktala police station area where the girls also stay, asked them if they would like to go with her to Alipurduar town, 43km away. The woman, who knows the girls, said they would be back in the evening.

The girls, who were in school uniform, agreed. The trio then boarded a bus and changed vehicles near the Dhawlajhora river, 20km away. Basanti took away the books of the students and dumped them on the riverbank.

After they reached Alipurduar town, the girls were taken to the railway station. Basanti, who kept the girls in the dark about their destination, told them at the station that they would go to Delhi to work as maids. Raju Lohar, a resident of Jharkhand who works as a linkman, met the three at the station.

“We were surprised when we were told that we would be taken to Delhi. We protested and started crying. Suddenly, we saw a ‘police uncle’ at the station and sought his help. He along with others rescued us and arrested Basanti and Raju,” Mani said.

According to Basanti, this was the first time she was taking girls to Delhi. “Raju makes contacts with families in Delhi and sends girls to work there.” She admitted that she did not seek permission from the girls’ parents to take them away. “I know many girls who work in Delhi. We did not have any bad intention,” claimed Basanti.

The parents of the girls said they had been searching for their wards since yesterday afternoon. “The police informed us at night that the girls had been rescued. We never imagined that Basanti would do this,” one of them said.

The girls have been handed over to the GRP. “We will produce them in court tomorrow after completing the formalities,” said an officer.