Sangita (name changed), a 19-year-old commerce student originally from Parbat District, realized that she had been sold for Rs 1.5 million to a Chinese man, who married her in Kathmandu under arrangements made by ´trafficking agents´ and a marriage bureau, with none of her family members or friends present. Along with six other girls and their newly-married Chinese husbands, she was taken to Harbin, the capital of China´s Heilongjiang province, with a stopover in Kunmin. In Harbin, they dispersed with their respective husbands. In detailed testimony, the sobbing young woman said she was held captivate and physically abused and tortured by her husband in a dark and narrow room. She was prohibited from even going to the toilet or using a cell phone and she was not given any proper food. The husband, who was always polite until they reached his home, turned out to be a divorcee, and was violent and a drunkard. "I was left in total despair with no money, without the job I was promised, and with a language barrier,” she said recalling her ordeal. Regretting having opted for the court marriage to the Chinese man for the sake of a lucrative job there, she cried for long hours and finally decided to escape, she said. On the fourth night, while her husband slept, she fled by the back door, walking barefoot in the snow, and with no passport or citizenship papers. "But I was determined to make my escape and walked continuously for more than three hours until I reached a house with lights inside," she said adding, "but nobody opened the door." Although she cried out for help there was no one around, and she was near freezing. Hours later a dim light approached. It was a security patrol vehicle with two cops in it. They rescued her from the ´death zone´ and helped her return to Harbin. They gave her 200 yuan to reach Harbin, where she called another Nepali girl, who was working there. To her surprise, her husband and a Korean agent named Papa came and found her and persuaded her to return home, promising good food, shelter, and money. Sangita went to Papa´s house as he finally promised to send her back to Nepal and also bought her some jewelry. But all this turned out to be just posturing, she said. With the help of wizard chat, she contacted agents in Nepal and threatened to call the local cops who had rescued her earlier and complain about how she was trafficked under the guise of a ´fake marriage´. Finally, on 17th Feb, Papa booked an online ticket for her to return to Nepal. "On the 19th I reached Kathmandu, with a new life and hope, and the agents received me at TIA, instructed me to lie to others about the reason for my returning from China and assured me they would send me to Korea next time," she said. Meanwhile, tipped off by a special source, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CIB) of Nepal Police on Tuesday held Chheru Sherpa, 52, of Makalu-5 in Sankhuwasava, the operator of Chheru International Marriage Bureau Pvt Ltd, after raiding various marriage bureaus in Kathmandu. “The marriage bureaus collected Nepali girls as per demand from their respective agents and organized marriages in a very short time,” SP Kiran Bajracharya said. “During preliminary investigations, we found many administrative lapses and legal loopholes for trapping girls and women seeking abroad jobs into such marriages,” he said. Chinese men come to Nepal for less than a week and lie about their age, which may be over 30 years more than that of the brides. Many are presented as divorced and a few are physically disabled, according to police. The girls get to know their husbands just before they get married, police said adding, they take them to their country as if they were their property. Police also arrested Hee Chang Park, 61, a Korean hotel operator working as an agent to find husbands for the girls. Both Sherpa and Hee claimed they were innocent. Of the 83 marriage bureaus registered in Nepal, many are found organizing ´fake´ marriages with money changing hands, police said. Reenu (name changed), a 23-year-old from Bhaktapur who got married in circumstances similar to that of Sangita and is ready to fly with her 52-year-old Korean husband, told police that she wanted to rethink her decision. “I was told that he was and single, but this turned out to be a fraud,” she told police. Reenu is among 23 girls, each holding a certificate of marriage and ready to fly to Korea, knowing nothing more about their newly-wed husbands.