In an early morning operation, Punjab Police on Saturday busted an
inter-state sex racket active in Ludhiana with arrest of 14 persons including
10 girls alongwith the lady kingpin already on bail in similar case who used to
target needy girls out of jobs due to Covid lockdowns from city and outside
forcing them into prostitution.
Antecedents of girls found involved in the flesh
trade have been traced back to as far as Nepal, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh,
Haryana, Uttrakhand, Chandigarh & Amritsar and further investigations are
on to unearth the complete area of their operations, ADCP-4 Ludhiana Rupinder
Kaur Sran who led the operation. We have also recovered restricted drugs
Etizolam and Escitalopram Oxalate tablets which are only allowed on prescription and the accused are being interrogated to ascertain the
source of their supply, the ADCP added.
Initial investigations have also revealed the
names of similar operatives in other cities with whom the main accused and her
girls were in touch to widen their net, Sran said adding all these angles were
being probed and more arrests were likely.
Twenty tablets of Etizolam and Escitalopram
Oxalate tablets besides 5 pieces of Spanisshe Fliege sex drops were seized.
Seven mobile phones, 28 packets of condoms, besides Rs 3630 and two liquor
bottles have also been seized from the spot.
Commissioner of Police Ludhiana Rakesh Agrawal had
constituted a special team under ADCP Ludhiana IV Rupinder Kaur Sran, with SHO
Mohammad Jamil its member. An FIR No. 46, dated 6-03-2021, u/s 3,4 and 5 of the
Immoral Traffic Prevention Act 1956, PS Tibba has been registered in this case.
Giving details about the raid, ADCP Rupinder Kaur
Sran said that a tip-off was received about flesh trade activity being run by
the accused and her movements were kept under watch. The main accused has
been identified as Manjit Kaur alias Pammi aunty resident of street number 10
New Subhash Nagar and was also arrested in a similar case lodged at Police
Station Jodhewal in 2018. Three men were also arrested from the house during
the raid who had come there as customers.
She was on bail now and was running the illegal
activity from her house only by luring young needy girls into prostitution.
Modus operandi was to engage girls once into her net to target more needy girls
out of work due to Covid lockdown and force them into prostitution.
Of those arrested, one girl from Delhi was lured into the trade because she could not repay the loan she had taken from a relative to make ends meet during Covid, while another girl was picked up by the main accused from a city Gurdwara she was visiting at the pretext of job offer. These girls back home used to tell their family members that they were working in a factory or performing in marriage parties, Sran added.