In 2022, 17 year old Tashi’s friend introduced her to Kishor, a man on Facebook who lived in Bangladesh. They started chatting regularly. A secret online romance started and soon the teen was deeply in love with Kishor. Their first meeting was outside her college. Tashi was in the XI standard. A few weeks later Kishor was waiting for Tashi outside her college to surprise her. He wanted her to accompany him to Dhaka, the starry, completely besotted young girl agreed. Without telling anyone in her family, the excited Tashi left with 24 year old Kishor.
Kishor and Tashi boarded a train. Kishor took away her phone and also broke the SIM card. He drugged Tashi who was in a state of semi consciousness during the eight hour journey. When Tashi reached Kishor’s house, she was so groggy from the drugs. Tashi met Kishor’s family and after that, Tashi was sent by Kishor’s mother to a room with Kishor where he raped her. She was held captive in the house. His family was planning to traffick her to India. She heard the word border a couple of times but she didn’t pay any heed. Tashi had no clue that Kishor was from another faith. Tashi was threatened and forced to make the long and tiring journey through the paddy fields by foot to India. A terrified and helpless Tashi quietly followed Kishor and a few of his relatives.
Back home Tashi’s parents were worried. It was in August 2022 that their daughter went missing. For months Tashi’s parents didn’t know what to do and looked for Tashi themselves. In April 2023, eight months into her captivity, Tashi called her mother and shared her heartbreaking ordeal with her. She was abused by Kishor and his family. Tashi’s mother went to the Police Station in Bangladesh and filed a case under the Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act 2012. Kishor and four of his family members’ names were written in the complaint. No one was able to trace the 17 year old who seemed to have vanished from Bangladesh.
Back in India, Kishor and his family took her to their relative’s house in Siliguri, West Bengal. Kishor then forced Tashi to marry him as per his faith’s rituals in front of a few people who acted as witnesses when she was still a minor. She was forced to smile in the fabricated videos that were taken to show that she willingly married Kishor. Once they were married he claimed his husbandly privigilies and continued to rape her. He started to physically abuse her. His relatives looked on and did nothing. She had a miscarriage in between and wasn’t not given any medical treatment- she started hemorrhaging for days . Kishor’s mother convinced Kishor that he should have a child to make sure that Tashi never leaves or turns against him. A few months later Tashi was pregnant again.
This time she gave birth to a daughter. The physical abuse continued. Kishor thrashing her for no apparent reason. Now that more than two years had passed, Kishor lowered his guard. He believed that his wife would be with him and not leave him as they had a daughter together.
In March 2025 we got intel about Tashi from a partner NGO in Bangladesh. It took us 17 days to track her in Siliguri.
On 8th April we were able to verify Tashi’s location. Once the location was confirmed on 9th April we met with the Commissioner of Police, Siliguri Metropolitan Police to initiate the rescue. It was decided that the rescue would happen in the early hours of the morning to ensure that Kishor was also arrested.
On Thursday 10th at 5:58 am , the police and our team rescued Tashi and her 18 month old daughter.
When Tashi was taken to the Police station in Siliguri to record her statement, Tashi shared the horrors she went through for the last three years. The Police listened in stoic silence and then filed a First Information Report under the Foreigners Act. The Magistrate went by the police report and booked Tashi under the Foreigners Act.
Tashi was in police custody for 14 days. Our team in Kolkata was in an uproar. They called Deputy Inspector General of Police(special), Criminal Investigation Department and even spoke toDeputy Commissioner of Police, Siliguri, as guided by him. Since Tashi ws a Bangladeshi and entered India illegally, the police had arrived at their own conclusions. She could have run away anytime in these three years, Tashi was guilty and needed to be sent to jail.
It has been more than 72 hours and this young mother who believed she and her daughter were finally free after almost three years is back to being a captive.
Our legal team is working to get Tashi and her daughter out of police custody and safe in a shelter home. Our aim is to repatriate Tashi and her daughter back to Bangladesh and ensure that the accused responsible for her exploitation- Kishor and her family members here in India who encouraged this are all punished.
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