A 17-year-old schoolgirl who was rescued from a hotel in Kolkata’s New Market by police on Wednesday, September 9, night was lured with a job offer in the USA by cybercriminals suspected to be based in Pakistan with the help of their conduits in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, said police sources.
The schoolgirl, who studies in class 11, had become friendly with some people on Instagram, who made her to believe that she would get a job as a receptionist in the USA with a monthly salary of ₹3 lakh along with a sponsorship to continue her higher education, according to police sources.
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If the girl, who hails from Sankarhati-2 area of Jagatballabhpur in Howrah district, were not rescued, she could well be put on a flight to the US via Mumbai and Dubai, according to details gathered by police, who are working on the case after her rescue. No one has been arrested so far.
A joint team of Howrah Rural Police and the central division of Kolkata Police got active after learning of a human trafficking operation from a missing person’s complaint the girl’s parents had lodged on September 7, the day she had left home.
The girl’s parents told police that she had left home without taking her phone along on September 7 and had not returned. “Her phone was switched off at home, and she had left home with some money. But her parents started getting phone calls for ransom hours after she had gone missing,” said a police official familiar with the case.
After she arrived at Esplanade, also called Dharmatala, the girl was brought to a hotel in nearby New Market by a hired taxi arranged by the local conduits of the cybercriminals. She checked into the hotel alone and lived there, waiting to be taken to the airport to fly to the USA.
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The cybercriminals meanwhile hacked the girl’s phone and started making ransom calls to her parents from that number itself. They asked for ₹5 lakh but soon reduced it to ₹3 lakh to set her free without harm.
The joint police team that raided the hotel in New Market after confirming the girl’s presence there found her alone. “Her account made it clear that she was fully unaware of the trap she was getting into. She genuinely believed that it was people from a charitable organisation she had met online who were now helping her travel abroad and get a job there. She said the charitable organisation had been helping underprivileged girls in India,” said the police official familiar with the ongoing investigation.
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“The girl has been rescued. Following her rescue, she was produced before Juvenile Justice Board on Thursday. Her family is relieved by her safe recovery,” said Howrah Rural SP Amit Verma.
