Beed: Sex Racket Busted At Majalgaon Hotel; 1 Woman Rescued, 3 Booked

Beed: In a targeted operation, the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) of the Beed Police busted a sex racket operating out of a local establishment in Majalgaon tehsil, rescuing one woman and booking three individuals, including a husband-wife duo.

Acting on specific intelligence received on Monday, Assistant Police Inspector (API) Janabai Sangle alerted her team to alleged flesh trade activities being run at Hotel Jugaad, situated near Godavari Tanda in Longaon in Majalgaon tehsil, under the jurisdiction of Dindrud police station.

Following formal directives from senior officers, a raid team led by Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Ashok Anantre, along with independent government witnesses, laid a trap at the venue using a decoy customer.

According to police officials, the decoy approached the premises, where a woman agreed to provide sexual services and demanded ₹1,000, instructing him to hand over the cash to a male handler nearby. Once the money was exchanged and the pre-arranged signal was given, the police team swooped down on the site and detained the handler, identified as Santosh Tukaram Chavan (36), a local resident. The two marked ₹500 currency notes handed over by the decoy were recovered from his possession during an on-the-spot search.

Investigators also detained Chavan’s second wife, Komal Santosh Pawar (Chavan). A frisking by women police personnel led to the seizure of ₹5,500 in cash (11 ₹500 notes) from her possession. A further search of the premises led to the recovery of 10 unused condoms.

The rescued woman, a resident of Beed, reportedly told investigators that the couple lured women to the location for monetary exploitation. They allegedly charged ₹1,000 per customer, kept half the amount and handed over ₹500 to the woman, running the illegal racket from the premises for their livelihood.

A case has been registered at Dindrud Police Station under Sections 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.

The operation was conducted under the supervision of Beed Superintendent of Police Navneet Kanwat, Additional SP (Ambajogai) Chetna Tidke, Additional SP (Beed) Sameer Shaikh, and SDPO Ashok Anantre. The raiding team comprised API Janabai Sangle, ASI Usha Chaure, head constables Ashok Shinde, Pradeep Yewale, Ganpati Buchale and Bhausaheb Karle.