Mob pelts 'sex haven' with stones

Fed up with the regular activities of an alleged sex racket in a Koregaon Park duplex bungalow, a group of about 100 residents pelted stones, damaged the parking area and lobby on Monday night.

Mob justice: Residents of housing society at Koregaon Park forced shut a prostitution den being run at one of the rented flats. Pics/Krunal Gosavi

The building, number 33 B situated in the C lane of the area has been a bone of contention between the other residents of the area.

"We were fed-up with customers coming into our society daily from evening till late night. We went to lodge a complaint in the Koregaon Park police station yesterday.

However, some time later, around 100 people came around 11 pm and started pelting stones. They also entered the building and damaged other material in the parking and lobby area," said Vishal Jadhav, resident of the Ragvilas cooperative housing society.

Long-standing issue
The residents of Ragvilas co-operative housing society had filed a complaint in the Police Commissioner Office in January 2012 (MiD DAY has copy of the application given to then police commissioner Meeran Borwankar) highlighting their plight due to the regular occurrences.

"There is an illegal business going on since many months. The customers would come in late night and it was disturbing the residents. We had decided to file a complaint and written an application as well. Following that, the business stopped for three to four months but started again. Since many months we were facing problems.

So yesterday, we decided to file a complaint again at the local police station. The building was damaged on the same day," informed Jadhav.

Vaishali Shinde, a resident of the adjacent bungalow, said, "The building owner had renovated the building, raised walls and installed shutters. When cars used to come with customers and girls, they used to open the shutter and park the car inside. This was the routine from 8 pm till late night. Also ladies from the area were facing problems as customers would to stand on the road in front of the society."

When contacted, police inspector Shivaji Kamble, of Koregaon police station, said, "I have not got any complaint about the damage to the building yet. All I have is the application filed by the Ragvilas cooperative housing society residents. We are in the process of getting information about the alleged sex racket in the area."

When contacted, Lalchand Godse, the owner of the building, said, "This is a false allegation made by residents. Me and other society members have differences over some issues. Last year also, they had complained about the same but the police didn't find anything on checking. Yesterday,

many people attacked on the building but neither a girl or a customer was found as there was no such issue or illegal
business going on at my property. I also oppose such illegal activities."u00a0