Unearthing a racket for supplying “bride slaves” from other states to men in Haryana, the Delhi police on Tuesday arrested five persons and rescued four trafficked girls. The racket was smashed after the police acted on an input of a 24-year-old woman who was trafficked from West Bengal and sold for `80,000 to a man in Haryana’s Rewari district for a forced marriage.

Hinting that there would be a prevalence of such cases in Haryana, which the police is trying to probe, joint commissioner of police (crime branch) Ravindra Yadav, said: “Haryana has the worst sex ratio among all states as according to 2011 census the number of women in the state stands 879 much below the national average of 943,” adding, “Such circumstances have led to difficulties in finding matrimonial matches for the landless and unskilled men, which has led them to indulge in illegally procuring poor girls from other lesser developed states for forced marriages.”

“We received an input that a 24-year-old woman and her cousin, 17, were drugged and trafficked to Delhi to be further sold for marriages at different places in Haryana. The woman, who was found to be a resident of North Dinajpur in West Bengal, was examined in the presence of an NGO, and she disclosed that she and her cousin were drugged at Raiganj railway station in West Bengal when they had gone to buy medicines for her mother,” said the police.

“Two unknown men and one woman, after befriending them, gave them food laced with sedatives after which they were brought to Delhi where the 24-year-old was sold to a man in village Bhadawas in Rewari as a bride slave.” However, she somehow managed to escape from the house and approached an NGO.

A mediator, Ram Bhavan, who helped the deal was arrested. At his instance, Ashok (35), who had solemnised a forced marriage with the woman on June 19, was nabbed.

From their interrogation, it was revealed that Saiyed Ali, alias Raju (29), Wasabi Barman (35) and Suraj, alias Bisavjeet, all residents North Dinajpur, were the ones who had drugged both the victims and brought them to Delhi. “Both of them were first taken to Ram Bhavan’s house where the deals were finalised. Bhavan’s wife Laxmi managed the girls in the house,” said the cops, adding, “Later, in this case, with the help one Rita, who has also been arrested, the girls were sold.”

At Rita’s instance, the kingpin of the racket, Saiyed Ali, and his deputy Wasabi Barman were arrested from Nangloi Metro station, when they were trying to flee.

“All the arrested accused were interrogated together and on August 11, the victim’s cousin was rescued as well from Village Bupania of Jhajjar district in Haryana. She had been sold to one Pramod for the same purpose on June 21.”

Two more girls were rescued from Sampla and Makdoli villages in Haryana and they too had been sold by the kingpin, Saiyed Ali, over the past few months.