Navi Mumbai: Three, including two women, held for running flesh trade in Kamothe

Navi Mumbai: Kamothe police arrested three persons, including two women, and rescued a woman who was forced into the flesh trade after conducting a raid at a house in Kamothe on Monday. Two women were allegedly running the flesh trade from the rented house.

Acting on a tip-off received from a social worker, the Kamothe police carried out a raid on Monday afternoon after sending a dummy customer.

The arrested were identified as Upasana Hiralal Malla, 34, a resident of sector 16 in Kamothe, Arti Nikhil Rokade, 28, a resident of Sukhapur in New Panvel and Shashikant Mahadev Kadu, 35, a resident of Gavan in Panvel Taluka. While Kadu, a customer was caught during the raid, the two women — Malla and Rokade — were running the sex racket and luring women by offering money.

According to police, they used to take Rs 4000 from each customer and used to give Rs 1500 to women whom they forced into the trade.

He added that the two women had rented a first floor of Suraj Sadan for illegal activity.

The team reached the spot after getting a signal from the 'customer'. "We caught Malla holding the envelope containing money,” an official said. He added that during the raid, the customer Kadu was found in compromising position with the victim.

A case was registered against them under section IPC 370 (2) and 34 of IPC and sections 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 of The Immoral Traffic Prevention Act.