Gauri, who deals in humans in the garb of running a placement agency, has been arrested for her alleged involvement in the trafficking and murder of a 16-year-old Ranchi girl whose body had been chopped into pieces when it was found by Delhi police in a sewer in May.

Friday’s arrest by Delhi police was the second in the case concerning the trafficking of Soni Kumari, a resident of Dahada village at Lapung, who went missing last year. Another trafficker, Manjeet Karketa, who is a resident of Kamdara of Gumla district, was arrested soon after Soni’s body was recovered.

“Gauri is a native of Alipurduar in Bengal. She is an active human trafficker who regularly deals in minor girls from Jharkhand. She runs a placement agency in Delhi,” said Jharkhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) chairperson Arti Kujur.

She said that Soni’s captors were apparently upset at her demand for promised wages, which she wanted to send home in Jharkhand.

Kujur was appreciative of Delhi police investigations which included going through 1,000 hours of CCTV footage to establish the identity of those behind the murder. Police have also recovered Soni’s Aadhaar card.

“Unfortunately, her family did not lodge a missing person’s complaint saying they don’t have money to fight court cases. Soon after Soni’s case came to light, SCPCR conducted an inquiry at Dahada. We found that as many as a dozen boys and girls are missing from there,” she said.

Ranchi police, who are investigating the suspicious death of another trafficked girl, Shraddha Kumari (15) of Nayak Toli under Jagannathpur police station, arrested Raj Kishore Mirdha who was detained on Thursday when he arrived by train with her body.

Mirdha, who lives in the same area as that of Shraddha, had sold the girl to a woman in Delhi for Rs 5,000 three years ago.

Officer in-charge of Jagannathpur police station Anup Kumar Karmkar said upon questioning Mirdha, their suspicion was confirmed that he was behind the trafficking of the girl.

“We have arrested him. An FIR has been lodged against him under sections 363 (kidnapping) and 370 (trafficking) of IPC. He has also told us about his brother, Nandkishore, and a woman, Lakshmi, who are involved in the racket. We are collecting evidence against them,” he said.

SCPCR chairperson Kujur revealed that three years ago, Shraddha’s elder sister Bharati had gone missing. “Bharati is yet to be found. I believe she too was trafficked by Mirdha. I have asked police to find out about Bharti also,” she said.