Image Source: The Learning Network
Bengaluru: The police in Bengaluru recently uncovered a human trafficking racket, while on the trail of a missing 16-year-old girl from Munnekolalu, Marathahalli. The prostitution racket was found to be centred in New Delhi but involved a peon from a local sub-registrar’s office.
During their raid, the Marathahalli police managed to capture four people involved in the sex racket in New Delhi however, the pimp and an associate managed to slip through their fingers.
The peon from the sub-registrar’s office, who has been identified by police as K Shivashankar alias Raju (30), is a resident of Bangarpet in the Kolar district. He allegedly ensnared the young girl by promising her a job in Delhi, after which he sold her to the owner of a brothel in New Delhi named Kajal, for Rs 70,000, where the girl was subsequently forced into prostitution.
After the girl went missing in the early part of 2017, the police were left grasping at straws, trying to find leads when they finally caught a break in September, when the girl’s mother received a call from her missing daughter.
To investigate the developments further, a team was assembled and sent to Delhi after having traced the call to the nation’s capital city. After a long period of investigation, the police raided the brothel in December and rescued the missing teen and another girl. The other girl, who is alleged to have been sold to Kajal by Shivashankar, hails from Mulabagilu of the Kolar district. Kajal and her associate Sarika, managed to flee the scene when the police raided the brothel.
According to the police, Shivashankar and his associate, Turub Pasha, handed over the girl to Kajal at the Kempegowda International Airport, where Shivashankar was paid Rs 70,000. After the exchange was made, Kajal flew back to New Delhi with the girl.
The police have also arrested Chotu Ram Dev (40) and Rajesh Kumar (34) from New Delhi and Pasha (38) and Shivashankar from Bengaluru, based on the young girl’s statement.
