The prime accused in the alleged torture of a young woman from Sodepur, Aryan Khan and his mother, Sweta, ran a channel on social media in the name of Isara Entertainment where girls were made to dance in music videos, police said on Saturday.

Aryan and his mother would allegedly tap prospective young women to join their event management company, make them participate in shoots for the music videos, and eventually force them into dubious activities, a preliminary investigation by Domjur police in Howrah has revealed.

The young woman from Sodepur allegedly refused to follow the line after joining the event management company in Domjur. She was subjected to mental and physical torture for several months for her defiance, the police said.

“We are checking all digital footprints of the accused in connection with the case. They have been successful in avoiding arrest, but it won’t be for long,” a senior officer of Howrah Police Commissionerate said.

“We will try to speak to the victim once she is in a state to talk and then make arrangements to record her statement before a judicial magistrate,” said the officer.

The 23-year-old victim from Sodepur on the northern fringes of Calcutta escaped from the flat in Howrah on Friday and returned to her home in Sodepur, on the city’s northern outskirts, with a fractured arm and severe injuries to her teeth.

She was exhausted mentally following months of alleged physical and mental abuse.

The woman alleged she was beaten up with iron rods, chopper and a grinding
stone.

“They kept me locked up in an apartment in Bankrabazar, near Ansari Daktarkhana. Sewta used to beat me mostly because I couldn’t perform household chores properly,” the woman alleged.

“There is not a point in my body where I was not hit while in their custody,” she said.

Her parents complained to Khardah police station. The woman is being treated at the College of Medicine and Sagore Dutta Hospital in Kamarhati.

Doctors treating the woman said she was yet to come out of her trauma and added it would take some time for her to recover.

The FIR drawn up at Khardah police station under Barrackpore Police Commissionerate, based on the complaint by the woman’s parents, was forwarded to the Domjur police station on Saturday afternoon.

Senior officers in the Howrah police commissionerate said a case involving
alleged sexual assault, voluntarily causing hurt, criminal intimidation, and several other charges have been drawn up.

Residents alleged that the local police were aware of Aryan and Sweta’s activities.

On Sunday, Sweta’s neighbours in Domjur alleged that the woman was well-connected and anyone who protested against her bringing young girls to her flat and allegedly engaging them in dubious activities would end up facing the police’s wrath.

“We were slapped with a criminal case of damaging a vehicle because we had protested against Sweta,” alleged Panna Gazi, a resident.

The police said the woman from Sodepur used to work for an event management company. During her stint at the company, she met Aryan and became friends.

Aryan offered her a job with another event management company in Howrah.

Aryan took her to his flat in Domjur and introduced her to his mother.

Later, after the woman had taken up the offer, she was allegedly asked to work in a bar in Howrah and engage in dubious activities.

When the woman refused, she was allegedly confined to an apartment since January, the parents have alleged.