Three persons, including two women, were rescued from Srinagar in Kashmir by Alipurduar district police in association with Jammu & Kashmir police after the trio alleged that a local family had confined them and coerced them into doing odd jobs.

On Friday, the trio returned to the district.

Sources said a couple of months back, Kapil Tamang, a resident of the Lankapara tea estate, which is under the jurisdiction of Birpara police station in Alipurduar district, left for Srinagar, along with his wife Anjali and Sandhya, his sister-in-law, who is from Sikkim.

All of them are in their early twenties.

“A person contacted Kapil and his wife and offered them jobs in Kashmir. He assured that they can make decent earnings by staying in Srinagar. The couple believed him, and around two months back, they left for Kashmir along with Sandhya,” said a
police officer.

However, after reaching Srinagar, the trio realized that they had been cheated. “The person who had extended a helping hand turned out to be a tout. They were taken to a house and were told to work as servants and maids,” the officer added.

As they denied serving the family, they were told that the tout had charged ₹1.20 lakh to get them for the jobs.

“Their cell phones were snatched, and they were kept under strict vigil. The family forced them to carry out various household jobs and also did not provide proper food,” said a source.

After living in such a situation for almost two months, Kapil managed to get help from a person who let him use his cell phone.

He called up Bishal Gurung, the Trinamool youth president of Birpara, and narrated their ordeal.

Gurung, in turn, approached Nayan Das, the officer-in-charge of Birpara police station, and other police officers and sought their help.

The police initiated a probe and located the house where the trio had been staying. “It is under the Rajbagh police station in Srinagar,” said a source.

The police officers contacted their counterparts in Rajbagh and provided necessary details. A few days back, a team from Rajbagh police station went to the house and rescued the trio. The police also arranged their train tickets, and today, they reached Birpara.

“We had never thought that we would be able to return home. People should not fall prey to such job offers,” said Kapil.

Gurung, the TMC leader, appreciated the police. “It is because of the proactive steps of the police that they are back home safely,” he said.

Y. Raghuvamshi, the district police chief, said they should always try to reach out to such people. “Whenever we learn that anyone from the district is in crisis, especially outside the state, we make efforts to bring them back. This time again, we have managed to get them back safely,” he said.

The police are in search of the tout who had taken the trio to Kashmir, sources said.

Bangladeshi nabbed

A Bangladesh national was detained at the immigration check post (ICP) at Mahadipur in Malda on Friday for trying to enter India with the help of a ‘fake’ passport.

Police sources said that Mohammad Deloar Hossain, who is from Rajshahi district of Bangladesh, was detained at the ICP as the personnel on duty were suspicious of the authenticity of his passport. As they checked it, it was found to be a fake.

Later, he was handed over to the Englishbazar police station. During the preliminary investigation, the police have found that Hossain had been to India earlier and had stayed there for some time. This time, he was again trying to enter the country and was nabbed, said a police officer.

Additional reporting by Soumya De Sarkar