An injured transgender woman was rescued from the lobby of a five-star hotel on EM Bypass early on Saturday after police got an alert from the hotel.

Based on the woman's statement, the police detained her husband and his friend — who had left the hotel shortly before she was rescued — from near the airport. The two were brought to Pragati Maidan police station and questioned for a few hours before being arrested.

The woman, too, was arrested after she failed to provide documents to suggest she was visiting India on valid papers from Bangladesh.

"Two separate cases have been lodged in the police station. The first is against two men on charges of attempting to murder and subjecting a woman to cruelty under section 307 and 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) respectively," said a senior police officer.

"The woman has been booked under the Foreigners Act and on charges of forgery under the IPC. The woman is the complainant in the first case while her husband is the complainant in the second," he said.

The police said the woman, her husband Adil Seikh and his friend "Tiger" came to the city on May 2 and got married in Uluberia in Howrah. They checked into the hotel on the same day and had been staying there since then.

"Adil is from Vadodara in Gujarat. His friend, Tiger, lives in Mumbai. They came to Calcutta from Goa," the officer said.

The woman underwent surgery before the two knew each other and Adil was aware that his wife was transgender before entering into a relationship, the police said.

Late on Friday, the two were caught in a severe argument, following which the woman was allegedly beaten up.

Investigators said the woman told them that she had undergone surgery at a hospital in Delhi. But the police are not yet aware of when she came to India, all the places she visited and how she met Adil.

"We are yet to find out why the couple chose Howrah's Uluberia for their marriage. We have sought all the documents the two handed over to the marriage registrar on May 2," the officer said.

Officers said the marriage, even if based on original documents, wouldn't have automatically made the woman an Indian citizen. She would have to fill up a form — form III — for registration as a citizen of India under Section 5(1)(c) of the Citizenship Act, 1955. Based on the application made by the person who has been married to an Indian citizen, the Union home ministry would decide on citizenship.

The police said they had begun checking the antecedents of the two men and their mobile phones were being scanned to map their exact locations before they reached Calcutta on May 2.