A woman who was said to be among more than 150 Nepali women held captive in Benaras, India, before their hostage-takers decided to free her has filed a human trafficking complaint against two alleged captors at Shivapur Police Station in Varanasi, India.

The 32-year-old woman from Madhuban Municipality in Bardiya district has filed human trafficking case against two persons identified as Sanjeev and Sundari, said Inspector Vijay Kumar of the station.  While the case has been filed against two suspects, the other women and several other possible traffickers are still unaccounted for, the inspector said.

On the night of July 16, an Indian police team and social workers had raided the building where all the women were allegedly being held hostage. Two women and three men were arrested from the building, but there were no sign of other women or the suspected traffickers. The raid was prompted after Bardiya district chief Ram Bahadur Kumbarung reported the incident to Indian police.

Kumbarung had learned about the incident through the husband of the same woman who filed the trafficking case against Sanjeev and Sundari.

She had reportedly phoned her husband asking for help after she was freed by her captors.

The woman has claimed that she was released along with another woman for “security reasons”.

If her statement is to be trusted, then there are still over 150 Nepali women who are being held hostage somewhere in India.

She said these women hailed from different parts of Nepal, including Jhapa, Sunsari, Sindhuli, Rupandehi, Dang, Banke and Bardiya.

The traffickers had allegedly lured them to go to India on the pretext of providing jobs in foreign countries.

Inspector Vijaya Kumar said they suspected that the women were taken to New Delhi after their traffickers learned about the raid.

The Delhi police have been informed about the incident, he added.