Madhya Pradesh police: Over 500 Bangladeshi women trafficked to India, forced into sex racket

More than 500 Bangladeshi women were brought to India illegally and forced into sex racket and drug peddling by racketeers in the last few years.

The police of Madhya Pradesh made the claim on Saturday after the arrest of 20 people during their drives in the last two weeks, reports Hindustan Times.

Most of the girls were taken to Mumbai and Gujarat where they were drugged and pushed into prostitution, police said.

Indore's Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of police HN Mishra said they apprehended 20 people, including two agents from Surat (a city of Gujarat), 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, he said. 

"Later, they used to give the women to certain people in Mumbai and Surat who pushed them into prostitution and drug peddling."

Mishra said these people used to drug the women and also used them to supply MDMA, a drug used for recreational purposes, 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," he said.

The law enforcers 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 us that they brought more than 500 girls from Bangladesh to India," said the DIG.

Indore police have freed 19 girls including 12 from Bangladesh so far. 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 that two girls from Mumbai lodged a complaint at the police station on September 21.

According to the complaint, 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 trade. 

The two girls somehow managed to flee from the flat, but there are six more girls who are still trapped in the flat, he said.

The police conducted a raid there and rescued six girls, the police official said, adding that they also 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 being kept hostage for a long time, said Qazi. 

"The police raided a guest house and a hotel and rescued 13 women and arrested 10 people." 

Qazi said: "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 jobs.”

"He also gave Rs75,000 to Rs1 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.

According to the women and the accused, the women, especially those who used to oppose work, were drugged many times, he said. 

"These girls were also used to supply MDMA drugs to customers on direction of Sagar Jain." 

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

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

DIG Mishra said: "It is an organized 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 the run. We are trying to identify them with Babu Bhai."