A couple has been arrested here for allegedly abducting and trying to sell a 32-year-old local woman to a family in Gujarat, police said today.
Thane district rural police arrested the duo--Ajay Kumar Gupta (28) and Priya Vinod Bansode (30)-- both residents of Palghar, yesterday.
According to API Walmik Patil of the Palghar police station, the couple forcibly took the victim from Palghar to Navsari on the pretext of getting her some domestic work but handed her over to some persons and returned.
They promised her that she would earn wages between Rs 10,000-12,000 per month for domestic work. However, the woman learnt that she was sold off to the family in Narora for Rs 1.30 lakh and they were planning to get her married to some person in the locality.
Following this, she managed to escape and filed a police complaint after which offences under various sections of the IPC were registered against the duo, who were subsequently arrested.
Since the complainant was not in a position to give specific details or names of persons to whom she was sold off, a police team is likely to visit Gujarat where she was taken to probe as to who all were party to the crime, the officer said.
The arrested were produced in a local court yesterday which remanded them into police custody till Friday.
The police will now probe if the arrested were engaged in trafficking of women.
