Girl sneaks out of pimps’ clutches

PUNE: The presence of mind shown by a 12-year-old girl saved her from being sold to a brothel-keeper on Monday.
The Swargate police said three residents of Kolkata — Samad, Salim and Surita — brought a girl from a suburb of the city by assuring to provide her a job in Pune, but sold her to pimps Salim Mohmmad (32) and Zafar Khan, both residents of Shakuntala Palace, Balajinagar, Dhankawadi, on Sunday night.
Salim and Zafar contacted brothel-keeper Mira Tapan (32) of Sapna building, Budhwar Peth, on Monday morning, who asked them to bring the girl at her place around 11.30 am.
The pimps hired an autorickshaw to carry the girl to Budhwar Peth. However, the girl, who had by then got suspicious of the pimps, spotted a watchman in front of a building at the Mitramandal Chowk and threw her sandals out of the rickshaw.
Then she asked the autorickskaw driver to stop the vehicle to get the sandals back, but rushed towards the watchman, Vinayak Chavan, seeking help as soon as the rickshaw came to a halt. She hugged the watchman tightly and stated crying for help.
Salim and Zafar followed her, but by then it was too late. A crowd had gathered at the site, leaving no option for the pimps than to run for safety.
While Zafar managed to escape, the crowd got hold of Salim. A Swargate police team comprising inspector Dilip Thorat, assistant inspector Satish Goekar and sub-inspector J.B. Dhekane later arrested the brothelkeeper. The girl has been sent to a remand home in the Nana Peth area.