India, June 17 -- LUCKNOW When two minor sisters vanished from their grandmother's home in Mohanlalganj last month, their family feared they had become just another tragic statistic. However, their subsequent rescue by local police blew the lid off an interstate marriage-trafficking network, exposing a bitter reality behind the rising tide of missing-person reports in the state capital.

The police uncovered what they described as a network that allegedly preyed on vulnerable girls, photographed them, circulated their images on WhatsApp and negotiated marriage deals hundreds of kilometres away in Rajasthan.

The girls, aged 16 and 12, were eventually rescued. But the case offered investigators a glimpse into a bitter reality hidden behind...