Ilam, Jan. 18: There are about 500 Nepalese girls at a brothel in Khalpada of Siligudhi, India. Most of the girls have been sold there by their own relatives and so-called lovers, it is learnt.

The Ilaka police office here has stated that six of he girls have escaped from the brothel and returned home. They said that they had been trafficked and have sought action against the culprits.

One of the girls who returned has already died an untimely death, it is learnt. The girl who had gone to Kathmandu to work in a carpet factory had disappeared suddenly, and returned home after six months.

By then she was in a critical condition. She died while fighting for her life at a hospital in Darjeeling, India. It came to be known later that she had contracted aids, the dread disease.

Likewise, another girl of the same village sold by her own husband was able to return after l5 hectic days through the efforts of her brothers. The husband who sold her is, however, at large.

The victimised girl said she had never imagined that her husband would be so mean. She said that she had fallen in love with him and married him. The two had then remained separated for a few months after which he wrote to her asking her to live together with him again. He subsequently sold for Rs 25,000 at Siligudi.

She lodged a complaint at the local police station and the case was transferred to the ilaka police station. But nothing happened after that.

Another Girl, from Banjho village development committee (vdc), who was also sold at Siligudi, was likewise able to return home and tell her tale. She was drugged by a man called Indra Bahadur when she had gone to attend a marriage ceremony at a relative’s home. She was then sold to a brothel.

According to her statement to the police, she was expelled from the brothel after she became infected with the aids virus. The story of another girl, from Chulachuli vdc, who escaped the horrible life at Khalpada, Siligudi is almost the same.

Her own uncle, Devi Prasad Tamang, sold her at Siligudi for Rs 40,000 last September. The uncle had lied to her that his wife was undergoing treatment at a hospital at Siligudi.

The victim says that on reaching Siligudi, her uncle introduced her to another woman and asked her to accompany the woman. On the third day, she learnt that she had been sold for rs 40,000.

She said, “the uncle then came with another wife. I was successful in making that aunt run away. Tamang had told the latter that they were going to trade in clothing. He had also brought another girl, from Jitpur, and I helped her also to escape”.

The girl from Jitpur who managed to run away says she was in love with a local youth but Tamang did not allow her to marry her lover.

According to the girls who returned from Khalpada, there are still 500 girls from Ilam, Phidim, Biratnagar and other places there. The owner of the brothel, Asha Chhetri, has a house in Biratnagar also.