Haribol (left) and Suleman at Raiganj police station on Tuesday. Picture by Nityananda Sarkar

Raiganj, March 4: Bengal police have rescued a 15-year-old Raiganj girl from a brothel in Pune in Maharashtra, 42 days after she had been sold to flesh traders by her fiancé.

According to the police, Mala Pal (name changed) had had an affair with a 21-year-old youth, Biplab Mondal, for the past two years. On January 17, she eloped with him after leaving home on the pretext of going to school.

A day later, her mother filed a missing person’s complaint with the Raiganj police station.

Biplab was spotted in the area on January 20 and arrested. The youth admitted that he had a relationship with Mala, but said he did not know where the girl had gone.

The police charged Biplab with kidnapping and he was remanded in judicial custody.

The Youth Congress and the AIDSO — the students’ wing of the SUCI — submitted several memorandums to North Dinajpur police superintendent Swapan Banerjee Purnapatra before the youth was taken into police custody.

This time, the police chief personally interrogated Biplab.

“The youth finally came clean and said he had sold Mala to a man, Haribol Debsharma, who lived in nearby Jhitkiya, for Rs 12,000,” a senior police officer said.

Debsharma was arrested along with his wife and he confessed that Mala had been sold to a man called Suleman Ali from Pune.

The police sent a 10-member team led by sub-inspector Madhab Chandra Das to Pune on February 28. Mala was rescued after a joint raid conducted by the Bengal and Maharashtra police in a red light area of the city.

Ali and the woman owner of the brothel where Mala was kept were arrested. Today, the police team returned with Mala and the arrested duo.

Ali has told the police that he hailed from Jhitkiya and knew Debsharma.

“I gave Debsharma Rs 25,000 for the girl and then sold her to a brothel in Pune’s Dhankauri area,” he is reported to have said.

Mala appeared scared and repentant.

“What I have done is wrong and I want to go back to my studies, but I don’t know whether the school will take me back,” she said.