Government Railway Police (GRP) at the New Jalpaiguri (NJP) railway station rescued 56 young women on Monday evening from a train to Patna.

The women, aged between 18 and 21, claimed they were offered jobs in an electronic goods factory in Bangaluru.

GRP officers, however, suspected they were being trafficked under the pretext of a job. Two persons accompanying them, including a woman, have been arrested as suspected traffickers.

Sources said initially, personnel of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) posted at NJP spotted the young women who had boarded sleeper coaches of the Rajendranagar-bound Capital Express, which would terminate at Patna.

However, the women told the RPF team that they were going to Bangaluru as they had job offers from a factory. They didn’t have appointment letters to substantiate
the job offers.

The RPF, in turn, informed the GRP, who reached the train immediately.

“We had information that some girls were supposed to be trafficked through the NJP. As the RPF reported to us about this group of girls without having proper documents, we intervened and rescued all 56 girls,” said an official of GRP.

The GRP arrested Jitendra Paswan of Bhatpara in South 24-Parganas, and Chandrima Kar of Bhaktinagar, an area under Siliguri Metropolitan Police in Jalpaiguri. On Tuesday, the duo were brought in a Jalpaiguri court which put them in police custody
for six days.

GRP sources said the rescued women were from Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling districts.

A GRP source said Paswan and Kar had opened an office off Eastern Bypass in Siliguri where the women got three months of training in hospitality management. “Probe is on to check if the training was a scam,” he said.