The Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Rural Police busted a flesh trade racket operated at Hotel Abhimanyu Restaurant and Bar in the jurisdiction of the Ajanta police station on Thursday. The police rescued three women—one from West Bengal and two from Maharashtra. A case has been registered against the Rafiq Khan Ajmer Khan (35, Ajanta) and Ajinath Prabhu Lokhande (25, Ajanta). The police have seized items worth ₹22,500 from them.
Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) API Sarla Gadekar and PSI Vinod Bhalerao received confidential information that a sex racket was being operated at Abhimanyu Restaurant and that women were being forcibly dragged into the flesh trade. Accordingly, the police team laid a trap and sent a dummy customer to the hotel. He demanded a woman. When he was taken to a room where three women were present, he was asked to select one and then took her to another room. The customer then gave a signal to the police team hiding near the hotel. The team conducted a raid and arrested Rafiq and Ajinath. Three women were rescued from the spot.
The action was conducted under the guidance of Additional SP Annapurna Singh and Sub-Divisional Police Officer Dinesh Kolhe by the AHTU team, including API Gadekar, PSI Bhalerao, PSI Swapnil Narwade, Dilip Salve, Kapil Bankar, Irshad Pathan, Bhayashree Chavan, Manisha Salve, Manjusha Hatkangne, Sapna Charawade, and others.
