On 12th August 2025 we got intel that 22 year old Ridhi from Bangladesh was trafficked to India in 2024. A source shared the trafficker’s location with us. He was in Ahmednagar, approximately 120 kms from Pune.
Ridhi’s parents married her to a man from their community when she was only 15 years old. In January 2024, seven years into her marriage, Ridhi started having an affair with a man from a neighbouring district in Bangladesh. She ran away from home twice and both times her family brought her back. The third time she ran away, the family was unable to find her. A few days into their search, neighbours told them that Ridhi and her boyfriend Billu had run away to India.
In February 2025 Ridhi managed to make a distress call to a neighbour in Bangladesh. Billu had trafficked Ridhi to India and sold her to a pimp. Ridhi shared that she was being sexually exploited by Billu who forced her to attend to 10-12 customers a day in a building in Bangalore. Billu was also physically and verbally abusing her. She managed to speak to her mother through her neighbour a few times with pleas to help her. Her last communication with her mother was in March 2025.
Ridhi’s mother went to the police station in Bangladesh and filed a complaint against Billu under the Anti-Human Trafficking Act. The Anti Human Trafficking Unit started to investigate the case.
We started to pursue different leads on how to track Ridhi’s exact location.
On 19th August, we got intel that Ridhi was 17 kms near the border of Pune district.
On 20th August, late night we got intel that Ridhi was moved to a new location, a rural part of Pune district. A source was able to confirm Ridhi’s location.
On 21st August at approximately 10:45 am we had Ridhi’s exact location. With this new information we immediately proceeded to meet the Superintendent of Police, SP, Pune Rural. After reviewing our evidence, he agreed to help us. Despite limitations of jurisdiction the SP recognised the urgency of the matter and immediately instructed his staff to coordinate with the police station that was within the jurisdiction of Ridhi’s location.
A few hours later we were at the police station and met the inspector. We handed him all the documents, which included the First Information Report, FIR, that was filed in Bangladesh. The inspector connected us to a female Police Sub Inspector, PSI, who would be mobilising a team for the rescue operation.
On 21st August at 1:50 pm, the police and our team were at Ridhi’s location, which was a house where Billu’s relatives, a husband and wife, were residing.
When the police questioned Ridhi she got scared and said she was from West Bengal and shared a fake name with the police and us. We calmed her down by showing her photographs of her family and kept reassuring her that she was safe. She finally shared that yes, she was Ridhi from Bangladesh and she was trafficked by Billu to India last year. Billu sold her to an agent in Bangalore and she was forced to attend to customers. After a few weeks Ridhi discovered she was pregnant. When she told Billu, they started fighting, Billu unwilling to accept the child was his. He brought her to Pune and they lived in his relatives’ house. Early August before Ridhi could deliver her baby, Billu ran away, (we learned later that he went back to Bangladesh where he was arrested by the Bangladesh Police.)
Ridhi and her infant son, along with the two accused were brought to the police station. At the police station, the PSI refused to file an FIR. She said that no acts of sexual exploitation or trafficking could be proved within her jurisdiction, Billu was already under arrest and on trial in Bangladesh, and Ridhi’s statement did not explicitly accuse Billu’s relatives of criminal exploitation.
Though the PSI would not file an FIR, she ensured that she would take measures to ensure that Ridhi and her infant son were safe. She ordered them to be placed in a shelter home for protection, care, and rehabilitation.
We accompanied Ridhi for her medical test where reports revealed that Ridhi was experiencing serious post-operative conditions and her son’s low birth weight was a concern. Mother and son needed urgent medical follow-up and psychosocial support.
The Assistant Commissioner of Police reviewed the accused documents and shared that as soon as their documents were verified and they were confirmed as Bangladeshi nationals, they would be deported to Bangladesh where they would stand trial. The police do not want to file an FIR against them stating that there is an FIR filed in Bangladesh. We are pressing for them to file an FIR since the couple had a pregnant Bangladeshi victim in their custody for many weeks.
Right now we are hoping that Ridhi will be open to counseling so she can slowly overcome the trauma and get emotionally and mentally stable before any legal proceedings start. Once she gets her emotions under control, she will share her statement and the police hopefully will register an FIR.
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