Sex Racket Busted in Thane: 27-Year-Old Woman Arrested, Three Women Rescued From Resort in Mira-Bhayander

A 27-year-old woman was arrested after the police busted a sex racket at a resort in Mira-Bhayander town in Maharashtra’s Thane district. The police’s anti-human trafficking cell (AHTC) raided a resort in the Uttan area of Mira-Bhayander on January 29 and rescued three women in their 20s during the operation, said senior inspector Sameer Ahirrao, as reported by news agency PTI.

The accused, Artidevi Pankajkumar Lehar, was arrested under section 370(3) (trafficking) of the Indian Penal Code, he said. Acting on a tip-off, officials from the AHTC sent a decoy customer to the resort and apprehended the accused while she was negotiating a deal, the official said, adding that further probe is underway.

Last year in October, Thane police arrested five Bangladeshi nationals and another person in the sex trade from the Kalyan area. On October 5, a representative of an NGO from Bangladesh informed a Pune-based social organization that a person from the neighbouring country had brought a 19-year-old woman from there under the pretext of providing her with a job. The woman was held captive at Hetutne village here and forced into prostitution, he said.