Woman pimped young girls, arrested

Mumbai: A team of Bhayandar police, along with the Thane (rural) police’s anti-human trafficking unit (AHTU), busted a prostitution racket, arresting a woman who allegedly ran it Wednesday evening.

Acting on a tip-off about immoral trafficking of young girls, the police established contact with the woman and sent a decoy customer.

After striking a deal, the decoy scheduled a meeting at a restaurant near the fly-over-bridge in Bhayandar (west).

The police laid a trap and arrested the pimp identified as Rita Singh while she was closing the deal with the decoy.

A woman, who according to the police was forced into prostitution, was rescued from the racket. Singh - who was booked under section 370 of the Indian Penal Code and sections 4 and 5 of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act ITPA, 1956 – has been remanded to police custody after being produced before the district sessions court, Thane, on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the rescued woman has been sent to a rehabilitation centre, the police said. Not ruling out more arrests, the Bhayandar police is carrying out further investigation into the case.

The twin-city has seen several such cases where sex rackets are operated from plush apartments in residential societies.