New Delhi, Aug 9 (IANS) A minor girl from West Bengal who was abducted and sold twice for illegal marriage was rescued by the CBI from Rajasthan along with the arrest of five accused, an official said on Saturday.

The minor girl, missing from Bardhaman in West Bengal since August 2023, was rescued from Pali in Rajasthan on Friday, the official said.

Those arrested include Bharat Kumar, Jagdish Kumar, Mena Dapuben, Rata Ram, and Dilip Kumar, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official said.

The girl had gone missing after she left home for tuition on August 9, 2023, the CBI said.

The investigation revealed that the missing girl was a minor girl when she went missing and was shown as a major in affidavits created for her marriage.

She was sold twice for marriage, and it is suspected that this incident could be part of a big human trafficking network, said the CBI in a statement.

The probe agency registered the case on February 16, 2024, at the direction of the High Court of Calcutta.

Initially, the case was investigated by the local police and then by CID West Bengal. Thereafter, on the petition of the mother of the missing minor girl, the High Court transferred the case to CBI, Kolkata, said the official statement.

On the basis of information received from sources and call detail record analysis, the CBI developed leads that suggested that the missing girl might have been sent to District Pali, Rajasthan, said the statement.

Later, a CBI team visited Pali and, after verifying the information, the missing girl was rescued from the residence of the accused on August 8, it said.

According to a government reply in Parliament, the National Crime Records Bureau reported that the number of crimes against women in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 were 3,78,236, 4,05,326, 3,71,503, 4,28,278 and 4,45,256, respectively.

–IANS

rch/dan