A young woman who went missing on April 26 in Barhi, was rescued from a city in Uttar Pradesh and brought back here on Monday evening. The 22-year-old, who was living with her younger sister 45 km away from Hazaribagh after their father got stuck in Gaya due to the lockdown, confirmed that she was sold to a middle-aged man by her neighbour.

Superintendent of police Karthik S confirmed the woman’s retrieval, and said they are on the hunt for the people involved behind her trafficking.

Police officials said the woman lost her mother a few years back, and her father was working with a company and had gone to Gaya in Bihar for work, where he was trapped when the nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus started on March 24. When she went missing in April, all efforts to trace her had failed.

On May 30, the girl made a call to her younger sister claiming that she was sold to a man from Bharatpur in Rajasthan, saying that she was in Fatehpur Sikri.

Soon, relatives of the girl informed local social workers, who passed the message to Alok Bharti, state head of NGO Breakthrough, which works for women creating awareness on early marriages. Based on Bharti's information, SP Karthik S talked to his Agra counterpart Ravi Kumar who formed a team and recovered the woman from Fatehpur Sikri.

In her statement to police, the girl said her neighbour Anita Devi sold her in Bharatpur, where she found a Barhi woman Anshu Devi who was settled there with her husband. Anshu and her husband escaped from Bharatpur with the girl but came to know that a group of people were searching for them. The trio kept roaming from one city to another, finally reaching Chauma Shahpur village in Fatehpur Sikri block, Agra on May 30, where the trio was recovered.

Social worker Khadiza Fatima of Delhi-based NGO Alternate Space arranged for the girl to stay at a shelter home in the city. Late on Monday evening, Barhi police reached the district with the rescued woman and Anshu.

Bharti said the woman was in shock and so far, it was not clear whether she had undergone sexual harassment at Bharatpur.

“But we rescued the missing woman successfully,” said Bharti. He added that it's now up to the police to find out which people were involved in her trafficking, along with Anita who went missing after the incident.

SP Karthik S said those involved in this crime will not be spared. He said they were trying to find out if there was any organised gang involved in this incident, adding that Anita Devi has been found and taken into custody.