Sex-racket busted in Palghar

Palghar (Maharashtra) : The Mira Bhayander-Vasai Virar Police have busted an alleged sex-racket run by a Bangladeshi national in the Virar region, with tentacles spreading to Mumbai and other parts of India. The police also rescued three Bangladeshi women, including a minor, officials said here on Saturday.

Acting on a tip-off by the Arnala Police, Virar, that a Bangladeshi national named Ashok Haranu Das (54) was running a sex-racket from his home with three women brought illegally from Bangladesh, the police kept a watch. Das, who has admitted to luring and selling around 200-250 girls, was also sending them to the red-light areas in south Mumbai’s Grant Road. After confirming the details, the police laid a trap to nab him. Police officer Santosh Chaudhary and others from an NGO acted as fake customers and after the deals were finalised, the team swooped on Das’ flat in MHADA Colony, Building No. 7, on Friday.

The police arrested Das and rescued the three Bangladeshi women, including a 17-year-old girl, who had entered into the country through grey channels.

Explaining the operation, Chaudhary said that his team contacted Das for women and he sent them photos of two women on WhatsApp, and also said that one more (minor) girl, 17, will be available at the flat. The charges would be Rs 10,000, Das said.

Upon interrogation, Das said that he had come here from Dhaka some 15 years ago along with family and was working in Mumbai.

Later, he came in touch with some human-traffickers and pimps identified as Manoj Yadav and Basu, both operating in the red-light areas of south Mumbai, and started procuring and supplying girls for flesh-trade.

Das started luring girls from Bangladesh and other parts of India with promises of big money and confessed how, in the past couple of years, he managed to trap between 200 and 250 girls from different Indian states and Bangladesh, who ended up in the red-light alleys of Mumbai, said the police.