Int'l prostitution racket busted, 16 Nepali women among 18 rescued

Eighteen women, including 16 from Nepal, were rescued from a prostitution racket in New Delhi, the police said today.

Based on a tip-off, Varanasi Crime Branch and the Delhi Police jointly raided a house under Vasant Vihar police station limits in Delhi yesterday.

The police said the women were confined to the house for the past few days and were soon going to be trafficked to Gulf countries. The police have detained three men for interrogation in this regard.

The Nepali women were lured with the promise of jobs and were first brought to Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, said the police official.

Two Nepalese women managed to escape from the clutches of the traffickers in the first week of July. They told Nepal police about the racket, who in turn contacted the Nepal embassy.

Based on the Nepal embassy's communique, Varanasi police raided half-a-dozen locations in the temple town last week. They arrested a man identified as Jai Singh under the Shivpur police station limits.

During interrogation, Singh said a group of Nepali women were going to be trafficked to the middle-east. Based on the inputs of the two freed women and Singh's statement, Varanasi Crime Branch undertook the joint operation with Delhi Police.