Hyderabad: International trafficking racket busted; police rescue Bangladeshi girl trafficked thrice
The 17-year-old victim was trafficked to India in the guise of 'love' by one Sigdhar who later pushed her into flesh trade. The girl's ordeal continued when she was trafficked and abused multiple times.
Key Highlights
- Bangladeshi girl was lured to India by a man name Sigdhar
- Girl was trafficked thrice before she was rescued
- Three other accused are on the run
Hyderabad: The city police have busted an international sex trafficking racket and rescued a 17-year-old Bangladeshi girl. The victim was lured to India in the name of 'love' by her 'boyfriend'.
The victim was trafficked three times and sexually abused by several men before she was rescued by the police on Thursday. The girl was rescued with the help of a Non-Government Organisation (NGO) Prajwala that tipped-off Rachakonda police about the girl.
According to a report, the raid was conducted after Sunitha Krishnan of the NGO Prajwala tipped-off Rachakonda Commissioner of Police (CP) Mahesh Bhagwath about the trafficking ring.
The girl was lured to the country by an accused named Sigdhar, who later brought her to Bengaluru. He then pushed the girl into flesh trade and forced her to perform like a dancing girl. Later, Sigdhar sold the girl to a woman from Vijayawada, who also pushed the girl into the sex trade.
The report suggests that the minor girl was repeatedly raped by the woman's son and his friends. Later, the woman named Vijaya sold her to a Bangladeshi couple, who entered India illegally and were settled in Hyderabad's Hafeezpet for the last four years.
The couple, identified as Visti Hossan, a beautician, and her husband Mohammed Sohail Hussain, who worked as a mason, also trafficked the girl into prostitution by taking the victim to various clients at lodges.
The accused couple also used websites to lure customers. The Rachakonda police tracked the couple near ECIL when they were taking the girl for prostitution. Police also nabbed a customer named Kounsu Hari Chowdary, who was accompanying the couple.
Police have now sent the girl to Prajwala home. According to police officials, the Bangladeshi man, who initially trafficked the victim and the accused from Karnataka and Vijaywada are still on the run.
Police have booked the accused under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The police at Kushaiguda police station in Rachakonda have also slapped Section 14 of Foreigners Act-1946 against the accused.
Girl forced into prostitution by mother
On August 19, five persons, including the mother, brother and "husband", of a teenage girl were arrested on charges of forcing her into prostitution and rape. According to the police, the girl's mother forcibly married her off to a man in April 2018 though she was a minor, a Mankhurd.
Police said her husband used to beat her up for sexual favours, following which she returned to her mother's residence in Mankhurd in east Mumbai.
"After few months, her mother took her to a pimp who forced her into prostitution," the official said quoting the complaint lodged by the girl.