Indore:
Police have rescued five minor girls from Malhargarh of Mandsour district busting an inter-state gang of human traffickers, police said on Wednesday.
All the girls aged between 3 years and 5 years were abducted and sold for Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 50,000 for practicing flesh trade, police said.
"These five girls were lured and abducted by the gang from different locations in Indore, Ujjain and Mandsaur", Anirudha Vadhiva, Station House Officer (SHO) of Malhargarh police station of Mandsour district said.
The gang members used to lure small girls with sweets and then drug them before they kidnapping them. The girls were then sold to the local contacts that would push them into flesh trade rackets active in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan for the last 18 months, he said.
The gang used to "pick up" their "targets' from temples and other crowded areas like market places.
So far, 17 girls have been freed from the gang in the last 10 days from Mandsaur, police said adding that they were searching for other girls. The inter-state gang has 24 members out of which 18 have been arrested, police said.
Parents of some of the girls who were kidnapped had filed complaints of missing with police. Police said they would hand over the rescued girls to their parents after legal formalities are completed.