Mumbai: The social service branch of Mumbai police raided a brothel in Grant Road after a 20-year-old Bangladeshi woman approached them for help.
During the raid, the SS branch rescued 16 women from the brothel and arrested the brothel owner identified as Shila Didi, 50. Of the 16 women rescued, 11 were found to be Bangladeshi, who were brought to India illegally.
On Wednesday, an unknown woman called the SS branch and said she has been kept in a brothel against her will and cried for help. After her call, the SS branch team met her at Mumbai Central railway station where the woman narrated her story.
According to the woman, she is a Bangladeshi and was illegally brought to India by her friend named Nazim around one-and-half years ago, promising her a good job.
She further said that one night, Nazim took her and crossed the Indo-Bangladesh border and brought her to Mumbai. For few days she was kept at Kharghar and later Nazim sold her to a brothel in Grant Road.
The woman alleged that Shila and her manager beat her and pressed her into prostitution.
After hearing her story, the SS branch raided the brothel the same day and rescued 16 girls and arrested the owner, under section 370 of the Indian Penal Code and sections 3, 4, 5 and 7 of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act.
Nazim, who brought the victim to India, has also been made an accused in the case. The rescued girls have been sent to the rehabilitation centre.
Police will soon initiate the process to deport the women back to Bangladesh.
