Rajkot: Sex racket busted during raid to rescue minor UP girl

RAJKOT: A prostitution racket thriving in a city-based hotel was busted on Wednesday night when police rescue two girls, one of them a minor, who were brought here to be pushed into flesh trade.
The minor, who is 16-year-old is from Uttar Pradesh while the other girl is a native of Maharashtra.
An NGO had received information that a 16-year-old girl was brought to the city to be pushed into prostitution and its members approached the Mahila police station.
“Along with this minor girl, police also found another young girl, who revealed that she and the minor were brought to the city by a man named Santosh, a native of Aligarh,” said Manoharsinh Jadeja, deputy commissioner of police, zone-2.
Santosh has, however, fled and police have launched a hunt for him.
Police said both girls were in the hotel for the past one-and-a-half-month.
When NGO’s volunteers and cops from the police station raided the hotel, the minor girl was found alone in a room, but police also stumbled upon a prostitution racket run by Prabhudas Kakkad, a resident of Ramnagar, and Jaishree Chavda, who lives in Virat Society and hails from Vadodara.
Along with the Kakkad and Chavda, police also arrested hotel manager Mehul Toralia, 30. Sources said some people linked to the hotel reportedly have affiliations with the ruling party.
The duo used to run the racket with the help of a woman from West Bengal and charge Rs 2,000 from men. Police said that the woman and hotel used to be paid Rs 500 each and Kakkad and Chavda used to share the remaining amount equally. An offence was registered against Kakkad and Chavda under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act at Pradyuman Nagar police station.
The minor girl is under trauma and the NGO will take her to Mumbai later where the local police complete the legal procedures and find out about Santosh, said a police official.
Sejal Patel, inspector, Mahila police station, said the girl will be counselled in a day or two after the mental condition normalizes slightly.
A separate offence will be lodged in this case once the girl speaks up.