NAVI MUMBAI: The Raigad police have busted an international prostitution racket at a seven-star rated resort in Alibaug and rescued five Colombian women brought here on tourist visa. The local crime branch (LCB) team trapped the racketeers by sending three decoys, and arrested four pimps, including a woman, who solicited customers through their website that offered escort service.
Police said the gang operated in Bengaluru, Delhi, Pune, Chandigarh and Hyderabad as well.
Senior inspector Jamil Shaikh of Raigad LCB said, “Customers were made to transfer money to the bank account of the prime suspect, Hasmat Rajan alias Ali, who is untraceable. He would contact the pimps to arrange the girls at the Alibaug resort. Three of the Colombian women had visited India in February for two months for the same work. Later, they came back again in June with two others.”
He said, “We raided the resort on July 24, after sending three decoy customers, and caught red-handed Sandeep Singh (30), a pimp from Dharavi. We rescued three Colombian women, aged between 22 and 30 years, who were sent to the rooms of the decoy customers. We recovered Rs 1.4 lakh from each of the women as they were paid by the decoy customers.”
Police said Singh led them to two aides—Nitesh Singh (40), a Virar resident, and Naresh Khatil (42), a
Bandra resident—who transported the women from Mumbai to the resort. The trio further led the police to a flat in Bandra, from where two more Colombian women were rescued and Dephany Pepi (60), a travel agent, was arrested.
The senior inspector said each woman charged Rs 1 lakh and apart from that customers would transfer an equal amount to the prime suspect’s bank account. The pimps would collect 50% of the money paid by customer to the call girls.
The rescued women have been sent to the women welfare centre at Karjat. The four accused have been sent to police custody till August 1.
(Representative image)
