Five women being trafficked to India have been rescued from Belhiya border checkpoint on Tuesday. An Indian national identified as Manoj Shetty, originally from Kolkata in the West Bengal State of India and living in Kathmandu for the past couple of weeks, had reportedly lured the five women assuring them of lucrative jobs at dance bars in India. According to KI Nepal, the NGO that rescued the women, Shetty had hired a Tata Sumo jeep to traffick the women across the border. The rescue had been possible when the organization’s staff stationed at Belhiya monitoring centre stopped the vehicle for questioning after growing suspicious upon seeing the group of women. Although the women were rescued, Shetty managed to escape from the scene and avoided arrest. “Initially, the rescued women did not tell us why were they heading to India. But by the time they told us the truth, Shetty had already fled,” said a staff involved in the rescue. According to Tara Sapkota, chief of the KI Nepal's monitoring centre set up at the border checkpoint, the investigation revealed that Shetty had assured the women that they will derive a salary of IRs 60,000-100,000 per month working in the dance bars in India. Among the rescued, two are permanent residents of Chitwan, one from Dang, one from Sindhupalchowk, and the other from Sikkim, India. The rescued women, who had been living in the Capital for quite some time, have been handed over to their guardians on Wednesday.