Crime Branch officers suspect gang forced 500 girls into flesh trade over the last 20 years at posh Lokhandwala neighbourhood; cops will conduct more raids to flush out culprits and victims
The police arrested the four main accused — brothers Jitendra Thakur and Vimal Thakur (in black scarves), Anju Thakur and Poonam Thakur
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For 20 years, no one suspected a thing as Mumbai's biggest sex racket flourished in a posh Lokhandwala neighbourhood, forcing at least 500 girls from across the country into flesh trade. What’s worse is that each of these girls was brought to Mumbai with the false promise of a better life and education. It was one of these victims who managed to escape after 14 torturous years and brought the entire sordid matter to light.
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Now a 24-year-old woman, she was brought to Mumbai in 2002 by the gang when she was just 10. She managed to escape about six months ago, and fled to her family home in Agra. Out of fear, she refused to tell her family members about her ordeal initially, but over the last few months they managed to coax the truth out of her. Once they were aware of the facts, the family informed the Agra police, who then wrote to the Mumbai police about the racket.
Busted
The Crime Branch (Unit IX) organised a raid in the wee hours yesterday, after it got a call from the top brass of the Mumbai police two days ago, and was asked to get in touch with the escaped woman. “On her direction, we raided one of the flats used in the racket and arrested four accused,” said one of the officers. The four accused are brothers Jitendra Thakur (37) and Vimal Thakur (47), and, women operatives, Anju Thakur (43) and Poonam Thakur (45).
Modus operandi
The gang had agents in villages and cities across the country, including Agra, Kolkata and Delhi. These agents would keep an eye out for financially weak families having young daughters around the age of 10. The accused would then pose as NGO workers and tell the unsuspecting families that they will take the girls to Mumbai and provide them with a better life and education.
Once in Mumbai, the girls would be forced work as housemaids. Their ordeal would get worse once they hit puberty, when the girls would be pimped out as virgins to the highest bidder. After that, the girls would be trapped in the prostitution ring. They would be sent to dance bars all over the city, and some would even be sold to bidders across India and in countries in the Middle East.
Sources from the Crime Branch said Jitendra and Vimal would go and meet the girls in their native village or town, and convince their parents to send them to Mumbai. Once in the city, the women —Anju and Poonam — would be in charge. They would claim the girls were their daughters and then pimp them out. The accused later admitted to their role in the racket and how they lured the girls.
Victims afraid
Crime Branch sources said that they found 10-odd women in the flat they had raided, but could not rescue any of them. The women seemed afraid, and kept claiming that they were not victims but relatives of the accused.
“All the girls – about 10 of them – claimed that their surname was Thakur and that they were all related to the accused. Because they were aged 18 and above, we could not remove them from the flat without their consent. We will now investigate their claims and rescue any victims we identify,” said a source.
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