A 26-year-old woman from West Bengal recently escaped from a brothel in Budhwar Peth in Pune. Not only this, she also helped the city police rescue four other persons forced into prostitution. One of the rescued women is a minor and the police suspect that she is from Bangladesh.
The police have taken the brothel-keeper and his wife into custody.
Sanjay Patil, senior inspector of the social security cell of the Pune crime branch, said that a person had brought the Bengali woman to Pune on July 16 on the pretext of finding her a job. But he sold her to a brothel owner in Budhwar Peth. The woman tried to escape from the brothel, but her efforts were in vain.
Read also: How Sudara is fighting for human trafficking victims
The woman then managed to contact her parents in West Bengal. They lodged a complaint with the police.
As per a report released by the National Crime Records Bureau of the Ministry of Home Affairs, 20,000 children and women fell prey to human trafficking in 2016
"A West Bengal-based non-governmental organization contacted Shyam Kamble, a social worker in Pune, and gave him the details about the woman," Patil said. Kumble helped the woman escape after which, she sought shelter in a hospital.
"On Friday, the woman met the Pune police commissioner, Rashmi Shukla, and narrated the incident," Patil further said.
Based on the concrete information given by the courageous woman, a team of social security cell raided the brothel. They rescue three women and a minor from there.
In May this year, a 25-year-old man had sent a Facebook message to Delhi Commission for women chief Swati Malliwal informing them about a 15-year-old girl stuck in a brothel on GB Road. The police successfully rescued the girl. The girl had later told NDTV that she was only nine years old when she was sold to this brothel in GB road.
Follow Us/shethepeople/media/post_banners/2xVp88241HohZh1ypIT2.jpeg)
/shethepeople/media/agency_attachments/iUYfaBbcMozaYLoGnoov.png)
