A 23-year-old woman was allegedly forced into prostitution after a woman she knew lured him to the city from an adjacent district with the promise of a job, police said.

The young woman managed to access a mobile phone and dial 100 to report her plight to the Lalbazar control room. New to the city, she failed to share her address but the police could track her down using the tower location of the phone.

She was rescued from the stairs of Sealdah station, where she was waiting after escaping the captivity of a small room in Burtolla in north Calcutta.

The woman has purpor-tedly told the police that she is from Nadia and was convinced by an “aunt” from her neighbourhood to accompany her to Calcutta for work.

“The victim was promised the job of a nurse in the city. Given her financial condition, she had agreed and trusted the woman whom she called ‘aunt’. The older woman brought the victim to the city on Monday night and took her straight to Burtolla,” said an officer of the eastern suburban division.

The victim apparently sensed foul play and tried to resist, the police said.

Early on Tuesday, the woman, who is a school dropout, managed to get hold of a mobile phone at the place where she was confined and dialled 100.

“She got connected to the Lalbazar control room. She narrated her plight to an officer but failed to give her address because she was new to the city and had no clue about where she was,” said the officer.

“The mobile number from where she had made the call was tracked and its tower location was identified. The woman was carrying the phone and we were tracking her movement,” an investigator said.

Based on her name and the tower location, officers of Entally police station started looking for her in front of Sealdah station.

“She was found sitting on the stairs. She had no money and didn’t know where to go. Based on her statement, the place in Burtolla where she had been held captive was raided. Three women, including her ‘aunt’, were arrested on the charge of human trafficking,” said a senior officer.

The accused have been remanded in police custody.

The victim’s family members were informed and they came to Calcutta to take her home.

Several women and young girls from villages and small towns are often tricked by people they know and trafficked with false promises of jobs in the city.