A 16-year-old girl who had gone missing from near Dhupguri in Jalpaiguri district on July 20 was rescued from the Katpadi railway station near Vellore in Tamil Nadu on Saturday.

Jalpaiguri district police rescued the minor with the assistance of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Shakti Vahini, an NGO that has been working against human trafficking across the country.

Sources said the girl hadn’t returned after going out of her home for tuition classes on July 20. Based on her family’s complaint, the police started a probe.

“Initial inquiries revealed that the girl had developed contact with a 19-year-old youth from Tripura through social media. Technical surveillance and investigation traced their movement across multiple states, starting from Maharashtra. The duo were initially believed to be in Panvel, Mumbai, and later in Pune. However, the police couldn’t trace her at both locations during searches,” said a representative of Shakti Vahini.

When the police were preparing to head to Pune again, an intelligence input suggested a shift in the suspect’s location to Bengaluru, Karnataka.

“We found out that the two were frequently changing locations, indicating that they were travelling by train,” the representative said.

Shakti Vahini then solicited the assistance of the Association for Voluntary Action, under the Just Rights for Children Alliance, to locate the duo. The combined effort led to the successful rescue of the girl at the Katpadi Railway Station in Vellore.

The police also took the youth into custody and produced him in the district court in Vellore. The court granted transit remand, and the duo have been brought back to Jalpaiguri, said a source.

“This operation underscores the growing dangers of online grooming and the need for coordinated efforts among police forces and civil society groups. We thank the Jalpaiguri police and the RPF for the swift rescue,” the Shakti Vahini official said.