JAIPUR: In a major joint operation, Jhalawar District Police, in coordination with Bundi, Tonk and Mumbai Police, busted an inter-state human trafficking and sex racket, rescuing 10 girls, including seven minors.
Police said the gang was involved in trafficking minor girls from economically weaker families, luring them with false promises of employment and a better life before selling them to middlemen in Mumbai for lakhs of rupees and forcing them into the sex trade.
Five members of the organized union, including a female leader, have been arrested, while another suspect has been detained. The victims were traced to multiple districts, including Jhalawar, Tonk and Bundi.
Officials said three more accused, believed to be hiding in Mumbai, have been identified and raids are on to nab them.
Jhalawar SP Amit Kumar said that after receiving information about human trafficking, police conducted investigations in local settlements and found that middlemen operating in Jhalawar and Tonk were targeting vulnerable families.
He said the accused lured the families by promising job opportunities in Mumbai, but instead trafficked the underage girls to agents operating in Mumbai’s dance halls. The syndicate also allegedly forged identity documents to make the victims appear as adults before trafficking them across state lines.
According to SP, the girls were then forced into sexual exploitation in Mumbai.
He further revealed a disturbing modus operandi in which, before taking the girls, the accused would make the parents sign stamp papers and put their thumb impressions after receiving money.
