A 14-year-old schoolgirl who was trafficked to Bangladesh earlier this year from a Malda village was rescued on Thursday.

Sukumar Ghosh, the inspector-in-charge of Chanchal police station, said: “The Class VIII student had an affair with a married youth... she didn’t have any inkling that the youth was married. In January this year, she eloped with the youth.”

When the girl went missing, her family filed a missing complaint with the police.

The police initiated a probe and tracked the youth’s cell phone and came to know that the youth had initially taken the girl to Dinhata in Cooch Behar and then to Bangladesh.

“During the investigation, it was found that the youth had trafficked the girl in Bangladesh. The investigators then contacted the CID, the Indian High Commission in Bangladesh and also the police of the neighbouring country,” Ghosh said.

“Police in Bangladesh managed to trace the girl and produced her in a court. She was then over to us at the international border in Petrapole. On Thursday, we produced the girl in a Malda court where she gave a statement to the judicial magistrate,” the police officer said.

.”We are in search of the accused youth,” he added.