Police rescue minors from brothel

PUNE: A team of the social security cell of the

Pune crime branch

on Thursday rescued six women, including four minors, forced into

prostitution in separate raids at Budhwar Peth

and Bhosari.

Two women have been arrested under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act (ITPA).

Police constables Tushar Alhat and Pradip Shelar, attached to the social security cell, received a tip-off that a brothel-keeper from

Budhwar Peth

was forcing minor girls into prostitution. Constable Nitin Telange got the information about a sex racket being run by a woman in the Bhosari area.

Inspector Sanjay Patil of the social security cell said two separate teams were formed after receiving the tip-offs. “We carried out raids in Budhwar Peth and Bhosari simultaneously,” he said.

Patil said the police rescued four minor girls from the brothel in Budhwar Peth. “All of them hail from another state,” he said.

“With the help of the Bhosari police, we rescued two other women forced into prostitution,” Patil said.

He said the police had arrested the 27-year-old brothel-keeper of Budhwar Peth under the relevant sections of IPC, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the ITPA. In the Bhsoari case, a 30-year-old woman was arrested under the sections of the ITPA,” Patil said.