Mumbai: A 19-year-old girl has been arrested for allegedly running a prostitution racket in Kalwa. The Thane police have also arrested a 60-year-old woman in whose house the operation was allegedly being run, and rescued two girls.
The anti-human trafficking cell (AHTC) received a tip-off that a girl named Priya was providing girls for prostitution in exchange for ₹3,000.
A raid was conducted on Wednesday night by the AHTC and the Kalwa police, and the accused, identified as Priya Jadhav (19), was arrested. Her questioning revealed that she would send her clients, along with the girls, to the house of an accomplice named Rekha Arora (60), who was also taken into custody.
“Ms. Jadhav said she has been running the racket for the last one year. We rescued two girls who were being provided to clients, and also received information that Ms. Jadhav had also been in touch with 10-15 other girls, some of them minors. We are in the process of tracing these girls as well,” senior police inspector Ravindra Daundkar, Thane AHTC, said.
Explaining the modus operandi, Mr. Daundkar said Ms. Jadhav was running the operation using a cell phone, on which interested parties could contact her. She would then meet the clients and take ₹3,000 from them, of which ₹1,000 would be given to the supplied girl, while ₹500 would be given to Ms. Arora.
“The client and the girl would then be taken to Ms. Arora’s house in Kalwa. Ms. Jadhav claimed she started the racket under the guidance of another woman, who also works as a pimp in the area, and efforts are on to apprehend her,” Mr. Daundkar said.
The case has been handed over to the Kalwa police for further investigation, while the AHTC is conducting parallel inquiries.
