Man held from UP for involvement in racket that held women captive in Bihar's Muzaffarpur

Muzaffarpur, Jun 18 (PTI) A man was arrested from UP's Gorakhpur on Tuesday for his alleged involvement with the racket that held several young women captive for months in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district and sexually assaulted them on the pretext of providing them with jobs, police said.
    The accused, identified as Tilak Kumar, was arrested by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) that has been formed to probe the case, they said.
    The SIT led by Deputy SP Vinita Sinha is on the search for a total of nine persons who were booked following the direction of a court, they added.
    "Tilak Kumar has been arrested by the SIT from Gorakhpur. The survivor in her complaint alleged that Kumar first approached her on social media in June 2022, and asked her to visit Muzaffarpur to get a good job. She also alleged that the accused kept on assaulting her in a room for several months," Superintendent of Police (SP-City) of Muzaffarpur Awadhesh Dixit said.
    "All allegations of the survivor are being examined and we are recording the statement of the accused," he said.
    In her complaint, the woman alleged that she and other victims were promised jobs at a call centre, but once they came here, they were confined to a room, beaten up and sexually exploited, Dixit said.
    The accused persons were linked to a fraudulent marketing company, police said.
    "Now, eight accused are absconding, and we are searching for him. We have recorded the statement of the complainant as well as several other victims. The complainant claimed that they were engaged in making calls to young women and offering them lucrative jobs in the fraudulent firm. We will soon nab all the accused, including Manish Kumar who is the owner of the firm," Dixit said.
    The survivor told the police that whenever they asked for their salaries, the accused used to tell them that they were part of the firm now. Finally, she managed to escape and went to the police station to lodge an FIR.
    However, the police refused to take her complaint initially, following which she approached the court.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)