Trafficking victim sold for Tk 40,000 files case against husband after return

A human trafficking victim who recently escaped the Indian city of Chennai and returned to Bangladesh filed a case against her husband who sold her to the human trafficking racket for Tk 40,000.

The 20-year-old woman yesterday filed the case with Hatirjheel Police Station naming nine members of the trafficking ring, including her husband, Hafiz Al Faruk, additional deputy commissioner (Tejgaon Division) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told The Daily Star.

On May 3, the young woman fled Chennai and came to the country a week later. Promising her a well-paid job in an old age home in India, her husband Rony (27) sold her to a gang member of the trafficking racket -- Nodi Madam -- in Hatirjheel area in exchange of Tk 40,000 on January 6 this year, she said in the complaint.

Nodi sold her again to the transnational racket in India for Tk 70,000. She was then taken across the border to Chennai, India. There, she was raped, filmed and blackmailed. She was eventually forced into sex work for four months.

"We are looking for the husband and trying to trace other member of the gang," said ADC Hafiz.

The victim was in India from January 6 to May 10 of the year, said police.

Earlier, a young woman who was trafficked to India, fled Bengaluru on May 7 and filed a case with the police station on June 1 against 12 members of the gang including Rifadul Islam Ridoy, 26, also known as Ridoy Babo on TikTok, a popular video sharing app.

Police are also investigating whether Ridoy's racket has any connection in this young woman's trafficking to India.

After the video clip of a 22-year-old woman being tortured and sexually assaulted went viral on social media, Indian police on May 27 arrested Ridoy along with five other Bangladeshis, from Bengaluru.

Bangladeshi law enforcers later identified the transnational trafficking racket which has around 50 members.

According to sources, so far three women including this victim recently managed to return home from the clutches of the transnational trafficking racket in India.

In Bangladesh, three cases have been filed under the human trafficking act with Hatirjheel Police Station. Police and Rab in separate drives arrested 12 people including a kingpin in this connection.

Indian police have so far arrested 12 people, mostly Bangladeshis, involved in the trafficking racket.