EOW to track property lineage of 188 brothel keepers of Ganga Jamuna

Nagpur: Economic offence wing (EoW) of the crime branch has been pressed into action by city police chief Amitesh Kumar to probe into the property lineage of 188 brothel keepers in the red-light area of Ganga Jamuna. The area is said to have a settlement history of three centuries old.
On August 11, Kumar had deployed police and barricaded the lanes of the red-light area bringing an abrupt halt to the activities of female sex workers (FSW) thriving here. Though welcomed by the neighbouring localities, the action has also raised controversy surrounding the question of livelihood of the sex workers residing here. Two prominent groups had nearly come to blows on Sunday over the issue of the closure of the red-light area.
Kumar, who has imposed section 144 of Criminal procedure code (CrPC) at Ganga Jamuna, has sealed two brothels and issued show cause notice to another seven. “Police department would extract the detailed records of the property ownerships, transfers and other mutual transactions of the 188 brothels of the red-light area. The real owners of the properties would be ascertained with this exercise,” he said.
“Some of the brothel keepers are possessing power of attorney as a claim of the ownership but they are not the real owners. Many brothel keepers have worked out some mutual understanding with the owners to evade legal hassles but we will soon unearth those facts and initiate proper action,” said the top cop.
CP said the owners of the properties of red-light area can use their premises for any legal trading practices but not prostitution. “We are working on five legal issues. First of all, prostitution would not be allowed at the public places. Secondly, the illegal brothels and the ongoing flesh trade in them has to stop. Thirdly, soliciting would not be allowed. Fourthly, minors would have to be removed from the flesh trade and lastly, even the adults cannot be forced into sex work,” said Kumar.
Working upon his ‘five-point-agenda’, Kumar said there is legal brainstorming being done to earmark the entire area ‘a public place’ under the relevant provisions of law to further tighten the screw on the brothel-keepers, pimps and sex workers. “If a woman, whose livelihood is purely depending on sex work, approaches police then we will help her to find alternative livelihood through government schemes, NGO interventions and even corporate social responsibility,” said Kumar.
The top cop clarified the barricades being used to assist the deployed police bandobast to ensure there are no entry of the outsiders into the red-light area for prostitution. “Barricades are not regressive or restrictive for the movements of the residents of Ganga Jamuna,” he said.