A woman on Tuesday was arrested in Kolkata for running a brothel with minors, including three children of her own. All the kids that were present were between the ages of 8 to 14. They were groomed and used as part of the racket that she ran. The Brothel was mainly operating from flats in residential areas. A total of four members were arrested in the raid, one of them was notorious and was accused in few cases before. They pretended to be a regular family with children and were renting flats for running their business.
A total six children including two 8 year-olds were rescued by the CID’s anti-human traffic unit and International Justice Mission NGO. These kids have been sent to a home run by Sunlaap and will be produced in front of Child Welfare Committee.
The accused Abhishek Saha and Anil Bhowmik were previously arrested under three similar cases. Santosh Lanchekar, based in Mumbai is allegedly a part of this racket. The 35 year old women ran this racket, which included her three daughters of ages 8, 9 and 14. Sarbari Bhattacharya, officer in charge, AHTU, CID said on Tuesday, “This is a rare case where a mother herself has used her kids in the racket.” The officials in the press release said that the rates of the younger children were higher. Multiple charges have been filed against the four accused of letting multiple customers abuse minors. A quarter million of children are forced into the racket in our country despite strict laws.
Officials expressed discontent and said children are not safe even with their mother in such cases. Madhusudhan Nath, deputy superintendent (special,) AHTU, CID, said, “We closed in on the location around 4 P.M., on Wednesday in an operation spanning several hours and rescued five girls at first.” On receiving information about the sixth girl being away, the CID jumped into action and tracked the sixth victim and her escort.
