Jalpaiguri, Nov. 3: Ten years she spent as a captive, catering to the whims of clients, hoping someone would help her get out of the hellhole.

Yesterday, the patience and prayers of Maya Lahkar (name changed), now 22, were rewarded when a letter written by a concerned customer on her behalf reached the police, who raided the red-light area in Dinbazar and rescued her.

?I am pinning my hopes on you,? the letter addressed to the district superintendent of police read. ?I cannot take this physical and mental torture any more and will kill myself if I am forced to continue this trade.?

Waiting in the women?s cell of the Kotwali police station, still unsure of her new-found freedom, Lahkar spoke of the torment she had to endure as a 12-year-old, after she was taken away from her home in Meghalaya with promises of a ?lucrative job?.

?I was on my way to a local hospital in Um Sinang to visit a relative when Don Maya, who lived in our locality, asked me if I was interested in a high-paying job in Guwahati,? she said. ?I agreed because we were very poor and wanted to help my parents.?

Maya, reportedly involved in woman trafficking, took Lakhar to Siliguri instead of Guwahati and sold her to Saraswati Saha, a brothel owner operating in Dinbazar area of Jalpaiguri.

?I was too young to realise what was going on and when I did, it was too late. Saraswati would beat me and keep me hungry if I refused to do what my clients asked me to. She kept men to guard me round the clock,? Lakhar recollected.

?Even the clients who came to me never took any pity. I would plead with them to help me, but no one did,? she added.

Lakhar said she spent the past 10 years in the building from which she had been rescued. ?Though no one felt for me, I knew god would answer my prayers and send someone who would help me out,? she said. And that is what happened some days ago.

?When a client came to me a few days ago, I told him, almost out of habit, about my troubles and he seemed genuinely moved by the events that pushed me into this trade. He said he would help me out and when I asked him to write a letter to the police, he agreed. He promised to post the letter immediately while he was leaving,? Lakhar said.

The man had kept his word.

?I received the letter yesterday and immediately asked my men to raid the red-light area,? said Jalpaiguri superintendent of police A.K. Nand. ?We rescued the girl and have arrested the woman who had held her captive.?

Both were produced at Jalpaiguri court today which ordered Lakhar to be kept in safe custody at a women?s home at Baneshwar in Cooch Behar.

Saraswati was sent to jail custoday

?We have contacted our counterparts in Meghalaya to make arrangements for sending the girl back home,? Nand said.

Police sources said the girl?s parents, who were informed about their daughter?s whereabouts, expressed their inability to come and take her home.

?The girl?s parents were elated to hear about their missing daughter, but could not come here because they work as daily labourers and do not have the money to pay for the to and fro journey. We are looking into what we can do to reunite the girl with her parents,? an police official said.