The Pune police has invoked the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999 (MCOCA) against Kalyani Deshpande and her partners for running a sex racket for more than 20 years.

Nitin Bhosale Patil, senior police inspector, Kothrud, said, “We arrested Kalyani Deshpande (46), Ravi Ramhari Gawali (29), Ravi Tapase (28) in July 2016. They were forcefully making girls from Maharashtra, and other states and from abroad to work as sex workers and were earning money.

Deshpande has a bungalow called White House in Pashan, a flat in Kothrud in which she used to run the sex racket. Sometimes, she used to rent flats to run her business. She used to threaten the girl as well.”

According to Mr Patil, Deshpande has been running sex rackets for the last 20 years and the police has invoked section 3, 4 and 5 of the Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act (PITA).

She first rented out flats to girls from other cities and states and later sent customers to the flat. There are more than 20 cognizable offences that are reported against her across various police stations in Pune.

“We had sent a proposal to south regional department in Pune to invoke MCOCA against Deshpande and recently our request got approved,” said Mr Patil.