Representative image showing trains.
Credit: PTI Photo
Bengaluru: Fifty-six young girls being trafficked into Bengaluru under the guise of employment in private companies were rescued at the New Jalpaiguri railway station in West Bengal last week, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) said.
A team of RPF officials, along with Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel, busted the racket after searching several coaches of train number 13245 (New Jalpaiguri-Rajendranagar) on July 21.
The girls were being transported by two individuals — Jitendra Kumar Paswan and Chandrima Kar — under the guise of employing them in motor parts and mobile phone companies in Bengaluru.
To avoid detection, the girls were spread across coaches. They were neither given details of their travel or employment nor were their parents informed. Their coach and berth numbers were scrawled in ink on their hands, the RPF added. The suspects were arrested for trafficking children after they failed to produce valid documentation or give credible explanations. The rescued girls were released after verification, the RPF added.
According to the RPF, it had saved 2,912 human trafficking victims between 2021 and mid-2025, and arrested 701 traffickers.
The force said it had disrupted known trafficking routes from Muzaffarpur to Secunderabad and from Katihar to Ajmer, with trains such as the Gorakhpur-Secunderabad Express, the Rajendranagar-Ajmer Express and the New Jalpaiguri-Amritsar Express becoming the focal points of surveillance.