The worst fear of working parents forced to trust someone else with their children came true for a mother on Thursday when she learnt that her six-year-old daughter’s escort had masterminded her abduction for ransom.

The victim, a student of Class I in a south Calcutta school, was abducted on Tuesday and reunited with her mother early on Thursday after police traced her and the kidnappers to the pilgrimage town of Tarapith, in Birbhum district.

The kidnap-for-ransom plot was allegedly hatched by 23-year-old Soma Kundu, a former door-to-door cosmetics salesgirl recruited recently by the working mother to escort her daughter to and from school.

“Soma masterminded the abduction and executed it with two others. She intended making some money quickly before settling down with her 18-year-old boyfriend Chhotu Mondal,” said detective department chief Damayanti Sen.

The trio had demanded Rs 25 lakh in ransom.

According to the police, the victim’s mother had recruited Soma on April 5, given her a cellphone and taken her to the child’s school to show her the way, little knowing that she would carry out her diabolical plan on the very first day of her assignment.

The accused reached the family’s Chitpur residence on Tuesday morning and headed for Dum Dum Metro station in a rickshaw after picking up the girl. The duo got off at Kalighat station but the girl didn’t reach her school, not far from Gariahat.

“Soma had apparently asked her boyfriend Chhotu and his friend Manas Mondal to wait in a cab outside the Metro station. The trio headed for Howrah with the girl in that taxi,” revealed an investigating officer.

The officer said Soma pacified the child, who was beginning to ask questions, by offering her chocolates. On reaching Howrah, she bought two sets of clothes to replace the girl’s school uniform and gave her a drink laced with sedatives.

The gang then boarded the Intercity Express to reach Rampurhat, in Birbhum. From the station, they boarded an autorickshaw to Tarapith, where they had booked two rooms at a lodge.

“The first ransom call came around 9.30pm on Tuesday. The call was made by Chhotu from Soma’s personal cellphone. The one given to her by her employer was switched off since afternoon,” the officer said.

When the mother demanded to hear her daughter’s voice, Chhotu said the child was safe but would be allowed to come on the phone only after the ransom was arranged. The jittery mother immediately lodged a complaint with Chitpur police.

“A team from the detective department was on the job by the time the next call came from the kidnappers around 11pm. Chhotu said he would call again 12 hours later to enable mother and daughter to speak. He then switched off the cellphone,” the officer said.

The third call came around 11am on Wednesday. This time, Chhotu demanded that the ransom be paid within the next few hours. The police quickly identified the cellphone tower location as Tarapith and despatched a team.

“We checked all the hotels and lodges in Tarapith one by one and found the gang. They did not offer any resistance. It was clear that they were all novices,” said a member of the rescue team.

The victim told the police later that she would be given food and drinks every time she woke up. “They used eight sedatives to spike her food and drinks. Another couple of tablets and it could have been a fatal overdose,” said the officer.