Two minor girls rescued

TT, Jalpaiguri, Nov. 21: Two minor girls who had been trafficked separately were rescued and bought to Jalpaiguri district in the past 24 hours.

Yesterday night, a 17-year-old girl was found unconscious on a NBSTC bus which was heading to Haldibari from Islampur.

Apurba Dutta, a contractual employee of NBSTC who was on duty as a conductor on the bus, noticed that the girl was sitting alone on a seat in the rear of the bus.

“The girl boarded the vehicle along with two youths at Islampur and sat in a seat near the rear. They bought three tickets for Jalpaiguri but as the bus reached Mallaguri More in Siliguri, the two youths disembarked from the bus,” Dutta said.

“Initially, I did not notice that the girl was sitting alone. After some time, I saw that the girl on the seat seemed lost. As I approached her, I found that she was not in her senses and suspected that she had been drugged. With the help of other passengers, we helped her get back to her senses,” the NBSTC conductor said.

Representatives of an NGO Childline in Jalpaiguri, were informed about the girl.

“We acted promptly and rescued the girl. We have spoken to her and came to know that she is a resident of Assam. We are trying to contact her parents through police. She was brought to north Bengal some days back in the name of a job,” a representative of Childline said.

In another incident, a 15-year-old girl, who is resident of a tea estate in the Dooars, reached her home from Delhi after a gap of seven years.

In 2007, she had gone to Delhi with an acquaintance in search of a job and was made to work as a domestic help at a home where she was tortured.

“Today, we have handed her to her father. She has assured us that she would not return to Delhi and try for some employment at the garden,” said Subarna Mitra, the co-ordinator of Jalpaiguri Childline.