From Our Correspondent
TURA: Alert village elders helped to stop a young Garo girl from being taken across the state by a suspected human trafficker last week along the Meghalaya-Assam border in Mankachar.
The would be trafficker was given a sound trashing on Saturday and handed over to police along with the girl who has since been reunited with her family.
The girl hailing from Mendal village, near Bajengdoba town, in East Garo Hills was lured away by one Raju Das, who worked as a mechanic in Rongram town, 12 kms from Tura. He hailed from Krishnai town, near Dudhnoi and under Goalpara district of Assam.
The girl left her home for his promise of marriage after he got in touch with her through the mobile phone and had regular telephonic conversations before eloping. She was taken by Raju to Mankachar town on Wednesday and kept at his friend’s house on the Garo Hills side of the border for three days.
Locals from the village began to suspect something strange as the accused was found moving repeatedly to and fro the area on a motorbike with the young girl pillion riding. The village nokma of Thakurambari alerted the Ampati police station about the presencel of the young local girl with a stranger and the villagers together with local NGOs nabbed the two.
They gave a sound trashing to the man after it was found that he had planned to take the girl beyond Assam towards mainland India while the girl claimed that she was promised with marriage.
The girl has since been returned to her family while the man has been sent to jail.
Police are skeptical about the marriage proposal claims of the man because there have been previous cases in which young girls have been lured away only to be dumped into brothels in Delhi, Mumbai and other big cities of the country.