2 women rescued from prostitution at spa in Navi Mumbai, husband-wife duo arrested

Navi Mumbai: Two women were rescued from a prostitution racket by the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) team of the crime branch after raiding a spa-cum-salon in Roadpali, Kalamboli node, after sending a decoy customer on Friday.The police have arrested a husband-wife duo for providing the women employed as masseuses to customers visiting the spa for sexual favour by charging Rs 4,500.Pruthviraj Ghorpade, senior inspector of AHTU, said, "The arrested accused are Salim Ansari (33), working as manager, and his spouse Salma Ansari (26), who owns the spa at the rented premises. Both reside in Taloja Phase-1 and hail from Uttarakhand. Acting on a tip-off about a prostitution racket at Golden King Salon and Spa in Neelkanth Dham Society, Sector 16, Roadpali, we sent a decoy customer who demanded a woman for sexual favour. The manager, Salim, accepted Rs 4,500 from the decoy customer and produced two women to select for sexual favour. Subsequently, the decoy alerted our police team waiting outside the building and, raiding the spa, the two women were rescued and the duo accused were arrested."An FIR was registered against the arrested accused couple at Kalamboli police station. They were booked under BNS section for aggravated human trafficking and under relevant sections of the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act, 1956, for keeping, managing, or allowing premises to be used as a brothel, punishment for living on the earnings of prostitution, and procuring, inducing, or taking a person for prostitution. The Panvel court has sent them to police custody remand till April 6. They took the commercial shop on rent last month and started the spa-cum-salon, but operated sex trade. The rescued women in their 20s are from Mankhurd and Raigad. As per court order, they have been accommodated at women's shelter home at Deonar, Mumbai.