A 15-year-old girl who was drugged and kidnapped from Ashoknagar, in North-24 Parganas, early on Thursday was rescued hours later by the railway police from Sealdah station.

Keya Sarkar, who was found in a semiconscious state on platform 9B of Sealdah Main, lives with her grandparents in Ashoknagar where she is allegedly tortured.

Her parents live in Duttapukur, around 7km away, with their two other children.

“I always wanted to live with my parents as my grandparents, uncle and aunt beat me up regularly,” the Class X student said.

Every morning, she goes for a run on a ground adjacent to her grandparents’ house.

“Around 5.30am on Thursday, three men approached me on the ground, saying they would help me escape the torture and reach my parents’ home. But since I had never seen the trio earlier, I said no,” Keya recalled.

What happened after that she could not remember. “I woke up on a bench in a crowded railway station. The three men left to bring water and food, asking me to stay put,” Keya said.

She was then spotted by a team of Railway Protection Force (RPF). “Our men saw her alone on platform 9B around 9.30am. She was not fully conscious and was sobbing and shivering,” said an RPF officer.

The girl was brought to the RPF post on the station premises and was given food and water. “She narrated the incident and gave her mother’s phone number. We called up her mother who rushed to the station after hearing about her daughter’s plight,” the officer added.

“Earlier too my daughter had tried to flee my parents’ home because of torture but we never thought she could be kidnapped. We kept her in Ashoknagar as we are not in a position to raise three children with our meagre income,” said Keya’s mother Bandana, who works in a diagnostic centre in Birati.

Keya’s father Ranjit does odd jobs.

“It seems to be a case of kidnapping. We are trying to identify and track down the gang members,” said S.S. Das, the inspector-in-charge of the Sealdah RPF post.

An officer investigating the case said the trio might be part of a bigger gang active in the suburbs and the adjoining districts. “We have stepped up vigil at the station and are coordinating with the state police to bust such gangs,” said an officer.