Purnea, May 3: A 17-year-old girl was rescued from Gulab Bag red-light district under Sadar police station on Monday evening.

Police said the girl approached them while they were patrolling the area. She was waiting there to solicit customers.

She approached the police and recounted how she was forced to provide service to customers, police said.

The girl was then taken to the police station, where cops tried to extract more information from her.

Thereafter, she was handed over to the district women’s helpline — an auxiliary wing of the district administration.

The body has adopted the legal route to send the girl back to her parents.

The district women’s helpline has written to Sitamarhi superintendent of police, Rakesh Rathi, narrating the girl’s story.

Fifteen days back, the girl was brought from Kishanganj to Gulab Bag, forcibly kept locked in an isolated room in a house and directed to solicit customers on the road.

She used to be under the supervision of professional prostitutes to prevent her from escaping.

The teenager said she was abducted three months back.

“I was picked up from Wazirpur Chowk, where I had gone with some children to buy some household items. I was offered a laddu by one Shamina Khatun. She said it was a prasad but it was laced with sedatives. Thereafter, I lost consciousness and do not remember anything,” she said.

On gaining consciousness, she found herself in Khabra area near the water tower of Kishanganj, an erstwhile red-light district.

She found some girls along with Shaminai the same house. Three girls, however, managed to flee.

She was later brought to Gulab Bag area in Pur- nea, where she was pressurised for the past six days to solicit customers.

The police said she was subjected to physical abuse when she refused to surrender to their demands.

“The teenager was rescued from the roadside and was handed over to the district women’s helpline for further action. Since the place falls under the Bagpatti police station of Sitamarhi, an FIR was not lodged here. The police have not taken any action in the case so far,” said the station house officer of Sadar police station, Sunil Kumar Singh.

Police sources told The Telegraph the girl, a resident of Wazirpur village under Sitamarhi district, is the daughter of one Raj Kumar, a village barber.

There was no other information available about the teenager’s family till reports last came in.

The controlling officer of the district women’s helpline, A.K. Raman, said the girl was in trauma.

“There is a network of flesh trade active in Purnea. They lure such innocent young girls into the flesh racket and force them to join the illicit trade when they decline to give in to their demands,” Raman said.

He had recently rescued such young girls from Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi and Samastipur districts of Purnea.