‘Women from Bangladesh trafficked, pushed into sex trade and drug peddling’: Madhya Pradesh Police

More than 500 women from Bangladesh were brought to India illegally and forced into sex racket and drug peddling by racketeers in the past few years, the police claimed on Saturday, after the arrest of 20 people in the past fortnight. Most of the girls were taken to Mumbai and Gujarat where they were drugged and pushed into prostitution, the police said.

"After the arrest of 20 people, including two agents from Surat, under section 370 (trafficking) of the Indian Penal Code and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, the police found that some agents, who were working at the Indo-Bangladesh border, used to identify young women from underprivileged families in Bangladesh to bring them to India on the pretext of providing jobs. Later, they used to give the women to certain people in Mumbai and Surat who pushed them into prostitution and drug peddling," said HN Mishra, deputy inspector general of police, Indore.

He said these people used to drug the women and also used them to supply MDMA - a drug used for recreational purpose - to different people.

"In Indore, most women were brought from Mumbai and Surat by traffickers Sagar Jain and Dharmendra Jain who also used to supply drugs. They are absconding and the police are trying to nab them. The police arrested two agents Aruz Sayeed, 32, and Titu Gazi Bengali, 34, from Surat on Thursday. The police are interrogating them to know more about Babu Bhai whose name was taken by many girls. As of now, they informed that they brought more than 500 girls from Bangladesh to India," said the DIG.

As of now, Indore police freed 19 girls including 12 from Bangladesh. A special investigation team (SIT) has been formed to investigate the matter.

Vijay Nagar police station in-charge Tehzeeb Qazi, who is a member of the SIT, said, "On September 21, two girls from Mumbai lodged a complaint at Vijay Nagar police station that they were brought from Mumbai to Indore for a modelling event a month ago but they were held hostage in a flat and forced into sex racket. They, somehow, managed to flee from the flat but there are six more girls who are still trapped in the flat."

"The police raided the flat and rescued six girls and arrested five people from the flat including two women. During the interrogation, one of the accused informed the police about two other places where women were kept hostage for a long time. The police raided a guest house and a hotel and rescued 13 women and arrested 10 people," said Qazi.

"The women informed the police that a man known as Babu Bhai brought them to Mumbai from Bangladesh in the past few years on the pretext of providing job. He also gave Rs 75,000 to Rs 1 lakh to the family members of every woman. Later, they were forced into prostitution by some other people. The agents in Mumbai beat them up for opposing prostitution. As most of them are uneducated and brought illegally without a passport, they can't go back to their homes in Bangladesh," the officer said.

"The women and the accused told the police that the women, especially those who used to oppose to work, were drugged many times. These girls were also used to supply MDMA drugs to customers on direction of Sagar Jain," Qazi said.

On Friday, the police arrested Sagar Jain's driver with drugs.

The police also arrested Deepak Vaishnav and Govardhan Purohit, residents of Indore, and have recovered fake Aadhaar cards of these women from them.

Mishra said, "It is an organised racket mainly operating in metro cities and some cities of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. A large number of people are still on run. We are trying to identify them with Babu Bhai."