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Trafficking of Bangladeshi girls into Pune is turning out to be a serious issue. The social security cell of Pune police crime branch on Thursday rescued a 15-year-old Bangladeshi girl from a brothel in Budhwar Peth, to which her stepmother had sold her. She is the eighth Bangladeshi to be rescued from city brothels in the past few weeks.
Investigations revealed that the stepmother, who also hails from Bangladesh, had crossed the IndiażBangladesh border to reach Pune with the help of ‘agents’ and then sold the girl to the brothel in Janta building in Budhwar Peth about a fortnight ago. Though rescued, the girl is afraid of returning to Bangladesh as she fears what her stepmother would do.
Police inspector Rajendra Bhamre of social security cell said, “The girl cannot speak Hindi or any other Indian language. So we arranged a translator for her. The girl said she saw her stepmother accepting money from the brothel keeper.”
The girl was one of the five minors to be rescued after a team of 30 crime branch sleuths conducted a combing operation in the red light area of Budhwar Peth on Thursday afternoon. While the Bangladeshi girl was rescued from Janta building, four minor girls — all from north Indian states — were rescued from the brothel at Chandni building. The four girls, aged between 15 and 17, were brought to the brothel about a year ago.
The rescued girls have been sent to a remand home. The police have arrested the brothel keepers — Seema Maini, 32, from Chandni building and Salma Shaikh, 30, from Janta building. Two of their accomplices are absconding.
Police said the Bangladeshi girl was shivering with fear when she was rescued. “The brothel keepers had threatened the girl by saying that there was no point in approaching the police. They told the girl that police would harass her after the rescue operation,” a police officer said.
The Bangladeshi girl would be kept at the remand home till arrangements are made to send her back to Bangladesh. Police is convinced that after deportation, the girl would soon find her way back to some brothel in India, as this has been the trend in the recent past.
Last month, on January 9, a team led by sub inspector Vimal Bidwe nabbed two pimps, identified as Momin Khan and Ratan Khan, while they were selling four minor girls from Bangladesh and one from Surat, Gujarat, to a brothel in Budhwar Peth.
One of the pimps, a Bangladeshi national, was possessing a fake passport and visa documents. A few days ago, another Bangladeshi national Shaukat Shaik was nabbed while selling three Bangladeshi girls, also from Janta building in Budhwar Peth.
Bidwe had said many Bangladeshi girls were brought to Pune on promise of jobs, but were eventually sold to brothels. Sources in intelligence agencies also point out that trafficking of Bangladeshi girls is a major security concern. While a majority of these girls are from poor families, there was the possibility of Bangladeshi girls and pimps being used by enemy nations, they said.
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