Krishnagar, Aug. 8: A day after Reena Biswas, who was sold off by her husband to settle his debts, and her month-old baby were rescued from a red-light area in Delhi, Nadia district police said the money-lender possibly led her husband Bhola into a trap.

A garment trader, Bhola is absconding. He had allegedly sold a pregnant Reena, 26, for Rs 15,000. Unable to repay Rs 10,000 he had borrowed from a Delhi acquaintance, Bhola sold his wife to a couple of touts this April. She gave birth to a boy last month in the central Delhi red-light area.

The arrested trio — money-lender Swapan Biswas and touts Subrata Sarkar and Sudhangshu Das — today gave an account of the pressure they had built up on Bhola, forcing him to sell Reena. The young couple had an affair before getting married.

The arrested trio was produced before the subdivisional magistrate in Tehatta and remanded in police custody for seven days. “We will find out if they had sold any other woman earlier,” said Biswarup Ghosh, the Nadia additional superintendent of police.

After a month’s effort in which the district police worked along with their counterparts in Delhi, the trio was trapped.

Swapan broke down during questioning. He told the police: “The moment we realised that Bhola will not be able to re-pay the dues, we started putting pressure on him. Initially, he was not ready to hand over his wife to us. But when we threatened Bhola saying he would not be allowed to leave Delhi unless he paid up, all escape routes closed on him.”

Initially, the police had believed that Swapan was only a money-lender who could not have had played a major role in the incident. “But during intense grilling, Swapan confessed to having played a key role. He pressured Bhola to sell off his wife. We are probing if he has any other motive,” Ghosh said.

From what the police have stumbled upon, Bhola, too, has a shady background. “Reena was not his only wife. He also married a woman from Kalna in Burdwan. We are trying to find out if he had sold any other woman to make up losses in his business,” Ghosh said. Another police team may be sent to Delhi for further probe.