Agartala Minor Girl Rescued From Bengaluru Trafficking Ring After ₹30,000 Fake Film Trap

AGARTALA — A minor girl from Agartala has been rescued and repatriated to Tripura after an interstate human trafficking ring lured her to Karnataka under the pretext of a film audition.

The operation ended a harrowing multi-state search spanning Agartala, Mumbai, and rural Bengaluru. The girl had disappeared on October 13. She was held captive nearly 2,000 kilometres away from home. Her phone was smashed. Her SIM card was torn out.

Yet she survived.

Tripura Police and local activists tracked the child to an isolated compound roughly 90 kilometres outside Bengaluru Airport. There, search teams found her alongside seven other trapped minors before spiriting her past hostile handlers into safety.

The Deception and the Gold Chain Pledge

The trap closed quickly. A local woman identified as Nishima Ben allegedly approached the girl in Agartala with promises of cinematic stardom, assuring her that a production crew was shooting a feature film in Bengaluru and holding open auditions.

When the victim voiced hesitation about travelling unescorted across the country, Nishima allegedly insisted she travel ahead, promising to join her within a fortnight. To finance the transit, the organizers instructed the minor to pawn her family jewellery.

The minor boarded a commercial flight departing Agartala at 12:45 PM on October 13. When she touched down in Bengaluru, the illusion evaporated. An unidentified driver intercepted her at the arrival terminal, loaded her into a private vehicle, and drove her directly to a secluded holding facility.

Her captors bluntly informed her that no film production existed. Instead, they seized her mobile device, destroyed the hardware to block outbound cellular signals, and subjected her to forced confinement. Days later, extortion calls landed on her parents' phones in Tripura. The demands shifted wildly—first ₹5 lakh, then surging to ₹8 lakh, before dropping to ₹2 lakh.

Multi-City Pursuit Across Mumbai and Bengaluru

The girl's family alerted the Agartala Police on October 14. Initial electronic surveillance misdirected the search party across state lines, indicating cellular pings routed toward Pune and Maharashtra.

The victim's father rushed to Mumbai, spending four fruitless days scouring transit hubs under police advisories. The trail went cold. He returned to Agartala empty-handed.

Breakthrough intelligence arrived on October 22. A Tripura-based social activist received verified geographic coordinates pinning the minor to rural Bengaluru. The father immediately boarded a flight south, linking up on the ground with volunteer coordinator Nagesh of AirNews Maha Sangathan and local field teams.

The Extraction and Interstate Nexus

The rescue team navigated rural roads 90 kilometres beyond Bengaluru's airport perimeter. They intercepted the minor walking alongside a cluster of seven to eight captive children, including several young girls and a boy.

Chaos erupted as the father pulled his daughter into a transport vehicle. Unidentified handlers rushed the vehicle to reclaim the minors. Volunteer security stood their ground, blocked the assault, and secured an exit corridor to local authorities.

In statements recorded upon her return to Agartala, the victim formally named four local conspirators: Nishima Ben, siblings Yuvraj Chowdhury and Naveen Chowdhury of Agartala, and Injamul Haque, an individual linked to an Agartala-based ashram.

Agartala Police have widened the scope of the inquiry to dismantle the broader recruitment racket. Officers are coordinating with Karnataka state authorities to trace the facility operators outside Bengaluru and rescue the remaining minors witnessed during the extraction.