Fifty women who were being trafficked were rescued from a Jalpaiguri-Patna train and two persons have been arrested in this connection, officials said.

The operation was carried out by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP). The suspected traffickers were nabbed at the New Jalpaiguri railway station on Monday.

“The rescue operation took place aboard Train No. 13245 DN, the New Jalpaiguri-Patna Capital Express. RPF officials along with RPF and GRP personnel conducted an intensive check on the train,” read an official statement.

The officials said they became suspicious when they observed a large group of young women travelling together. Upon questioning, glaring inconsistencies were found in the travel plans of the women, aged between 18 and 31.

The women hail from the Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, and Alipurduar districts of West Bengal, the officials said, adding that they were lured with the promise of lucrative employment in automobile and mobile companies in Bengaluru.

None of the women possessed valid tickets and their coach and berth numbers were merely written with ink on their hands and lacked any documentation regarding their supposed employment , they claimed.

The suspected traffickers, identified as Jitendra Kumar Paswan and Chandrima Kar of Thakurnagar, Siliguri, West Bengal, were apprehended from different coaches of the train.