Fahila's Courage Leads to 6 More Rescues!

On August 13, 2026, our team received information from a partner organization in Bangladesh about 25-year-old Fahila, a Bangladeshi woman, who was trafficked to India. Later that day, the team learnt that Fahila had been trafficked to Chennai. 

The team was able to determine her location from a source who shared that Fahila was about to be moved to a brothel. After making plans, our team left for Chennai. 

On August 14, our team met the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) of Sholinganallur. After the team shared information with the DCP, he directed them to meet the Inspector of Chithalapakkam Police Station.

While planning the rescue operation, the team received intel that there was movement outside the building and alerted the police that Fahila was on the move. When the team arrived at the location, they saw a young woman who matched Fahila’s description. She was accompanied by another woman and a man. Fahila and the other two individuals climbed into an autorickshaw and left.

The team followed the autorickshaw and shared the location and number plate with the Inspector. He immediately arranged a police team.

Our team continued to follow the autorickshaw but lost them in traffic. The team now had to rely on the police, who were tracking the autorickshaw’s number plate. After 30 minutes, the team received a phone call from the source and a partner organization. They gave us an update: when the autorickshaw stopped, Fahila hopped out and ran to a traffic police officer. When the man and woman travelling with Fahila saw her talking to the officer, they fled the scene. Our team later learned that the man was a brothel keeper and the woman was a trafficker. The traffic police officer was unable to understand Fahila’s language (Bangla), so he took her to a police booth nearby. 

Our team called the police team and informed them about the new development. They said since it was outside their jurisdiction and the victim was now safe, there was nothing more they could do. They asked us to meet Fahila and ensure that she was placed in a shelter home and said they would register a case the next day.

The police officer at the booth allowed us to speak with Fahila. She told us that there were other girls and women who were being held at the same location where she was first being held. Our team shared this information with the police.

Fahila was placed in a women’s shelter home.

For a few days, the police took no action. They refused to file a First Information Report: they stated that since there was no raid and the victim was found outside of their jurisdiction, they could not file a report. The traffic police also stated that they could not file an official report. 

On August 18, an inspector from the Anti-Vice Squad (AVS) visited Fahila in the shelter home and recorded her statement.

On August 19, the AVS informed us that they would not file an FIR (First Information Report), as an FIR had been filed in Bangladesh, and that they would deport Fahila back to Bangladesh. 

On August 19, at 10:30 p.m., the police acted on the earlier information that our team had shared with them via Fahila, and they raided the location where the other victims were being held. They rescued 6 victims, all Bangladeshi nationals. The youngest was a 15-year-old child, Kaia. They arrested five people, all Bangladeshi nationals; three individuals were involved in exploiting the victims, a female trafficker who had trafficked Fahila from Bangladesh, and a male agent who was housing the victims and sending them to different customers. 

On August 20, the AVS filed the FIR. Fahila, along with the 6 survivors and accused female were all kept together in the same room at the police station for two days.

On August 21, the survivors were produced before the Magistrate. The Magistrate passed an order to place them in different protective homes. 15-year-old Kaia was placed in a government children’s home, and Fahila, along with the other five women were placed in a protective home for women in Chennai.

A few days after her rescue, Fahila discovered she was pregnant. Due to serious bleeding, she was admitted to the hospital on September 1. On September 4 we received the sad news that Fahila had miscarried her baby. She remained in the hospital until September 10, after which she returned to the protective home, where our team continues to visit her and offer her our support.

On the legal front

On August 29, the AVS informed us that they had arrested the female kingpin, Ranga, in West Bengal at immigration. Ranga was behind the trafficking racket. The AVS requested our assistance to bring Ranga to Chennai and to act as a translator and guide since they were unfamiliar with the location and language. Ranga was taken back to Chennai, and the next day was produced in front of the court, where the Magistrate ordered the police to take her into custody. 

On September 3, Ranga’s lawyer applied for bail. The Magistrate denied Ranga’s bail.

On September 8, we submitted a petition in court to meet with Fahila. Although reluctant, the Magistrate fixed the court date for September 10. 

The five survivors were presented in court. (15-year-old Kaia remained in the shelter home, and Fahila was still in the hospital.) There was a language issue: the survivors only understood Bangla, and the court did not have a Bangla translator. A Hindi translator stepped forward to offer his services. The Hindi translator (whom we learned later was the accused’s lawyer) intimidated the survivors. He told them to change their statements and tell the Magistrate that they were from West Bengal. He threatened them, saying if they did not accept responsibility for their mistakes and did not listen to him, he would ensure that they continue to remain in India for three to four years.

Our advocate and Inspector immediately intervened and spoke to the Magistrate, who stated that she did not understand either of the languages (Hindi or Bangla) and therefore had no way of knowing what was being communicated to the survivors. The Magistrate directed that the girls’ statements be recorded in the language they understood and subsequently translated into English.

The Magistrate also asked whether our team would be representing the other survivors. Our team confirmed that they were. The Magistrate then advised our legal team to submit a similar petition through which our team could record and translate the statements.

Our advocate advised against undertaking the translation as our team were persons of interest in the case. He suggested hiring an independent person to record and translate the survivors’ statements on their behalf so that the process remained impartial.

On September 10, we placed a petition before the Magistrate requesting permission to meet the other 5 adult survivors. The Magistrate granted us permission. 

On September 11, our team met Fahila and the other survivors at the protective homes and counselled them. The survivors were visibly upset. They were scared and shared that when they appeared in court, people from the accused’s side had intimidated them and asked them to change their statements. They were terrified that their families would find out that they were forced into prostitution, and Ranga, who had brought them to India (on the pretext of jobs) had paid large sums of money to get them into India. If they wanted to return to Bangladesh, they had to first pay her back.

Each survivors had a story, which our team will share in detail later. Right now, they are safe, and our team is working toward repatriating and reuniting them with their families.

"When it comes to saving a life, no distance is too far."

Ashwin Shares His Perspective of this Story

“At 03:02 p.m. on August 13, a friend from a partner organization called to see if Freedom Firm would be willing to rescue a 25-year-old Bangladeshi sex trafficking victim in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, who was trafficked under the pretext of a decent job. In the blink of an eye, I (Ashwin, Freedom Firm, India’s National Director) said yes, without realizing the distance of nearly 1700 kms (1060 miles)  from Kolkata, where we have a highly committed Bengali-speaking team.

In the next 5 minutes, we received detailed information on the victim and her ordeal. I told my colleague in Kolkata to get ready; she abandoned a conference she was attending and immediately began planning the rescue with her team, and within a few hours, three team members left for Chennai. After a few days two of her teammates returned while she kept on fighting injustice alone for the next three weeks.

What dedication and commitment!

One of the police officers the team approached the next day said that the problem of sex trafficking does not exist in Tamil Nadu. His response took me back to February 2020. We had conducted a survey in Tamil Nadu. The survey revealed the shocking truth of cross-border trafficking from Bangladesh for commercial sexual exploitation across Tamil Nadu, especially in Chennai, and the need to fight against it. Before we could take the next steps, the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and we were forced to stay indoors and deal with the hunger crisis that survivors and their families were facing.  

A senior-rank IPS officer took cognizance of the case and directed the jurisdictional police station in-charge to raid the brothel and rescue “Fahila” (whose name means capable and distinguished).  When our team reached the location with the lady inspector; the brothel managers were alerted by the kingpin, which led to the relocation of the girls. Fortunately, our investigator noticed this and alerted the intervention team. The investigator moved into action and followed Fahila but unfortunately lost her in traffic. When Fahila saw a traffic policeman at the signal, she managed to get out of the vehicle and rushed towards him for help. After a short while, we received information from our partner organisation about Fahila’s location. 

We are grateful to the policeman who fulfilled his duty, crossing borders and boundaries to protect a citizen of another country without a second thought. When our team reached Fahila, we found her calm and relieved.

Fahila was trafficked from Bangladesh on August 6, and rescued in India on August 14, just before Independence Day, when her hope was gone. Simply incredible!

Despite deliberations held through the Indo-Bangla border during the 57th Director General Level Border Co-Ordination Conference held between the Border Security Force(BSF) and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) in June in Delhi, Fahila’s case fell through the cracks. At that meeting, both sides reaffirmed their commitment to intensify joint efforts through enhanced vigilance and extra precautionary measures to curb trans-border crimes, including human trafficking, within two months. The two border guarding forces reiterated their shared resolve to adopt a policy of zero tolerance towards trans-border crimes, this sensational case surfaced, pointing to the failure of the governments. 

Along with Fahila, our team rushed to the local police station to register a First Information Report (FIR), but even after hearing her story, the police again began chanting the absence of trafficking in their state and continued until Fahila courageously disclosed the plight of six other Bangladeshi victims that led to their rescue in the early hours on August 20. One of them was just 15 years old.  She disclosed the kingpin’s criminal network encompassing three to four states in South India. Approximately 800 girls and women hailing from Bangladesh are in similar exploitative situations and are awaiting rescue.  

The police finally registered the case. 

Fahila’s continuous resolve and courage has the potential to bring freedom to all of the victims.

Meanwhile, her stark revelations led to the arrest of the kingpin, Riya, by Chennai police, with Freedom Firm’s support on the Indo-Bangla border in West Bengal on August 30, while she was attempting to enter Bangladesh. 

When Fahila missed her monthly period, she suspected that she may be pregnant. A few days after her rescue, she started to bleed profusely. No one in the shelter home seemed to take her situation seriously. Only when her strength started to fade, she was rushed to the hospital. She called us from there, but before we could reach her, we learned she miscarried. She had been two months pregnant.

Despite all that happened to Fahila, she was still very “capable” and “distinguished,” as her name suggested. We are devoted to continuing to fight with and for her loss and for the rescue, restoration, and justice for countless others awaiting our collective response before it’s too late. 

Would you consider standing with us in this fight across India?”

– Ashwin Rathod, India’s National Director for Freedom Firm