Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Police have registered a case of organised crime against 26 accused in connection with trafficking of a 15-year-old girl who was rescued by Ashoka Garden police a week ago.

Police identified 26 accused and arrested some of them including those who abducted the minor and forced her into prostitution and then sold her to a man in Ashok Nagar district for Rs 2 lakh.

The minor girl had fled from home as she was harassed by her uncle following her parent's death in 2021.

An auto driver raped the girl and then handed her over to Ashutosh Vajpai and his wife Mahak Yadav, said DCP Priyanka Shukla.

The couple, the prime accused in the case and Mithilesh Puraina who sold the girl for Rs 2 lakh along with their aides Nidhi Thakur, Shashank Poddar, Dimpi Khan, Maqbool Ali, Arjun Patel, Nishant Mahole, Mohd Naved, Anjali, Yogesh Kumar, Kuldeep aka Kunal, Ritul Pandey, Surendra Chauhan and Indra Bahadur Singh have been arrested.

The accused have cases lodged against them for immoral trafficking and other sections at crime branch and Shahpura police stations.