File picture of girls rescued from other states.

Bhubaneswar, May 6: Two women from the capital fell prey to traffickers from Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh in the last few days.

On April 23, a married woman from Boudh, Samita Behera, was sold to pimps who came to the capital from Jhansi. She, however, managed to escape and narrate her tale to the police, which later led to the arrest of her husband and the pimp.

While Samita is now living with her parents, police are trying to trace 20-year-old Chandrama Behera, another woman believed to have fallen into the trap of Jhansi-based flesh traders. A case has been filed in the Mahila police station here.

Police officers say trafficking of women has become a growing menace in the state. According to police sources, Chandrama from Salia Sahi area of the city was reported to be missing from April 30.

Her family members, who are daily wage earners from Ganjam district, lodged a missing complaint in the Mahila police station on May 3. They alleged that she might have been trafficked out of the state.

“As we are poor, we could not arrange the marriage of my sister. Recently, a woman of our area came up with a marriage proposal for my sister in Jhansi. But we did not agree to her proposal. However, last Saturday we found Chandrama was missing. We later lodged a complaint with the Mahila police station,” said her brother Purnachandra.

Chandrama’s family members alleged that ever since she has gone missing, they have not been able to trace the woman who had given them the proposal to arrange a groom for her. “We fear that the woman might have sold our sister,” said Chandrama’s brother.

Officers at the Mahila police station said they had got a complaint regarding the missing girl. “We are investigating the matter. We hope it would be clear soon whether the girl has been trafficked out of the state or not,” said the police officer.

This incident occurred at a time when the city police have been busy investigating the case of Samita who had been sold by her husband in Jhansi. The police on Wednesday arrested one of the pimps from Jhansi. The pimp, identified as Ghanashyam Das (52), a resident of Niwadi in Madhya Pradesh, was produced in court yesterday.

According to the police, Samita was married to one Ranjan Kumar Jena (22) of Khurda district last October. It was a love marriage, following which both the girl and her husband were staying in the house of Ranjan’s uncle at Kolathia.

After two months, Ranjan, his uncle Dilip Lenka and aunt Ranju Lenka allegedly started torturing Samita for dowry. Her husband later took her to Jhansi on the pretext of staying there. Deputy commissioner of police Himanshu Lal said on April 23, Ranjan sold his wife to two pimps for Rs 40,000. “After Ranjan left Jhansi for Orissa, the pimps molested her and tried to engage her in prostitution. But Samita escaped and reached Bhubaneswar with the help of a truck driver who brought her a train ticket and also gave some money,” said Lal.

After she lodged a complaint on April 27, the police arrested Ranjan from Khurda and his uncle and aunt from Kolthia on April 29. “A police team raided a place in Jhansi on Wednesday and arrested Ghanashyam. The police are on a hunt to nab the other pimp who reportedly hails from Puri,” Lal added.