Thane: Police bust sex racket, 5 Bangladeshi nationals among 6 held

The Thane police on Monday claimed to have busted a sex racket in Kalyan area with the arrest of five Bangladeshi nationals and another person. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone III Kalyan) Sachin Gunjal announced during a press conference that seven Bangladeshi women who were being held captive and coerced into the flesh trade had also been freed.

On October 5, a representative of an NGO from Bangladesh informed a Pune-based social organisation that a person from the neighbouring country had brought a 19-year-old woman from there under the pretext of providing her a job. The woman was held captive at Hetutne village here and forced into prostitution, he said.

Acting on the information, a team from Manpada police station in Dombivli reached the specified spot in a chawl on October 6. They found the victim and six other women were held captive in a room and forced into sex trade, the official said. According to the authorities, the women were coerced into the flesh trade after being brought from Bangladesh to India on promises of jobs.

Additionally, several of the accused men's presence in a nearby neighbourhood was made known to the authorities. However, when the accused got wind of it, they ran away into a woodland region outside of Angarli village, according to the official. He stated that after ordering more police, they conducted a nightlong search operation and apprehended five of the accused, all of whom were from Bangladesh and ranged in age from 24 to 40.

During a search of the room of the accused, the police seized 25 suspected Aadhaar cards, 10 PAN cards, four birth certificates as well as Indian and Bangladeshi currency notes, the police said. The exact currency amount was not specified.