Facebook friendship turns nightmare for Meghalaya girl, sold for Rs 3 lakh; 3 held

A human trafficking racket spanning multiple states has been busted with the arrest of three persons, including a woman, in connection with the sale of a young girl from Meghalaya for Rs 3 lakh and her forced marriage in Rajasthan earlier this year, police said on Tuesday.

The arrests are linked to a wider trafficking network suspected of selling at least six girls — five from Assam’s Boko area and one from Tripura — over the last two years.

Several other young women from the Northeast are believed to have met the same fate, raising concerns about a trafficking gang operating across Assam, Meghalaya and Rajasthan, they said.

The case began after a missing person complaint was lodged on June 11 at the Nongpoh Women Police Station in Ri Bhoi district, reporting that a girl had gone missing from the Byrnihat area, police said.

A case was registered under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act.

During the investigation, it was discovered that the missing girl had been taken to Rajasthan, where she managed to escape from captivity. With assistance from Rajasthan Police, she was rescued and brought back to Meghalaya.

The girl told the police that she had befriended a man from Assam on Facebook who promised to marry her and convinced her to travel to Delhi and Rajasthan.

Once there, she was allegedly sold for Rs 3 lakh and forced into marriage, Ri-Bhoi district SP Vivekanand Singh told PTI. Following coordination with police units across several states, the investigation led to the identification and arrest of the suspects.

The prime accused, Rajesh Hinge (31), a resident of Kumarghat in North Tripura, was arrested from Guwahati on October 19. Based on his statement, another accused, Md Khalil Ali (31) of Boko in Assam’s Kamrup (Rural) district, was arrested two days later from Jhalukbari.

Further leads pointed to the alleged kingpin, Monika, who hails from Rajasthan, and was apprehended from Kamakhya Railway Station on October 26.

Police said all three accused are being interrogated and that more arrests are likely as the investigation continues.

Preliminary findings suggest a pattern: traffickers use social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to befriend young women, earn their trust through prolonged communication, and then lure them into travelling outside their home states with false promises of marriage or employment, before selling them to buyers elsewhere.

Police warned that this modus operandi is increasingly being used to exploit vulnerable individuals, particularly from rural and economically weaker backgrounds in the Northeast.

“Children and youth must remain alert and immediately inform their parents or authorities if approached online by strangers offering marriage, jobs or travel opportunities,” the SP said.

Authorities have also cautioned that the same approach is often used for cybercrimes such as blackmailing, UPI fraud and extortion. Users were advised not to click suspicious links or install unknown applications that could compromise their devices and data.

Police said efforts are on to trace more victims linked to the network and to coordinate with law enforcement agencies in Assam, Tripura and Rajasthan to completely dismantle the trafficking ring.