Bhopal:

An 18-year-old girl from Chhattisgarh was sold seven times in seven months to people in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh last year before she died by suicide in September, the police said. Eight men have been arrested in the case, which is being investigated by the police of three states — Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

A mentally challenged man, Babloo Kushwah, to whom the girl was forcibly married, is yet to be traced, the police said.   

The horrific human trafficking case unfolded after the men who abducted the teen from Jashpur district of Chhattisgarh called up her parents and demanded money.  

The teen — a resident of Jashpur in Chhattisgarh — used to help her father in farming activities. Later, a relative took her to Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh to get her a job from where she was abducted.  

The family informed the police after the abductors called for ransom. They threatened to kill her if the parents could not pay up. 

Interrogation of two of the arrested persons — one Pancham Singh Rai and his wife. distant relatives of the teen — revealed that they had brought the girl from Jashpur to Chhattarpur, promising her a job, said senior police officer Sachin Sharma.  

Later, they sold her for Rs 20,000 to Kallu Raikwar, a local in Chhatarpur, seven months ago.   

The last person to buy the girl was Santosh Kushwah, a local from Lalitpur, in Uttar Pradesh, who paid Rs 70,000.   

The teen was later forcibly married to Babloo Kushwah, the son of Santosh Kushwaha, who is mentally challenged. She died by suicide in Lalitpur in September last year.  

 The Chhatarpur police are now investigating the possibility of more girls from tribal areas of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh being trafficked by the accused in other states.