An Indian girl, trafficked to Bangladesh and recovered by the police of that country, was repatriated on Tuesday after intervention by Calcutta High Court which asked the Centre for help to bring the girl home.

The legal fraternity claimed this was the first time a girl trafficked to Bangladesh was repatriated after intervention by Calcutta High Court.

A team of the Bangladesh government handed over the girl to Indian authorities at the Gede border in the presence of the police, BSF and officials of the ministry of external affairs.

A resident of Nadia’s Krishnagar, the 16-year-old girl was kidnapped by a Bangladeshi infiltrator on June 23 last year and taken across the border. Bangladesh police rescued her and kept her at the Sheikh Rasel Child Training and Rehabilitation Centre in Rangpur. Rangpur district officials got her in touch with her mother in Krishnagar.

However, during a phone conversation with her mother in November last year, the girl said she was being sexually tortured at the home.

This prompted her mother to move Calcutta High Court in December last year. There, Justice Rajasekhar Mantha directed the Centre to take steps to get the girl home in India.

Measures on both sides of the border followed the order till the girl was sent to India.

The girl was taken to a safe home in Krishnagar, from where she would be produced before a court on Wednesday to record her statement before being handed over to her parents.

Advocate Susmita Saha Dutta, who fought the case for free, and the girl’s mother praised Justice Mantha, who involved central agencies to get the girl back. The mother thanked Ranjan Banerjee, a professor of Bethuadahari college, who helped her to fight her legal battle.

Krishnagar police saidthat on June 24 it began a probe on the basis of a complaint by the girl’s mother. Police came to know one Milan Sheikh, a Bangladeshi national who worked at a steel furniture manufacturing unit in Krishnagar, lured the girl to Bangladesh. Once becoming sure about the girl’s location, the CID took up the case and got in touch with Bangladesh authorities. The CID found out that the detective department of Bangladesh police recovered the girl and kept her at Sheikh Rasel Child Training and Rehabilitation Centre in Rangpur. But following the girl’s allegations of sexual abuse there, and her mother’s intervention, Calcutta High Court stepped in.

On Tuesday, Justice Mantha also congratulated everyone involved in the initiative for making an “uphill” task possible.