Prostitution racket busted, 3 held for sending women to Gulf

Police have busted a prostitution racket and arrested three persons for allegedly luring women under the pretext of offering them jobs in the Gulf countries and pushing them into flesh trade, an official said Monday.

The accused are identified as Kamal Sheikh (56), Tinku Dinesh (36) and Farid Shah (55), he said.

Sheikh had allegedly promised a woman from Mumbai a job in a hotel in Bahrain.

However, she was forced into flesh trade by the hotel owner who had seized her passport, thus preventing her from leaving the place, the official said.

The victim somehow contacted a woman known to her in Mumbai, who filed a complaint on October 26.

According to the official, the victim had to pay Rs 2 lakh to the hotel owner for allowing her to return to India.

He said Sheikh, Dinesh and Shah were acting as middlemen for trafficking women to Bahrain, Dubai and other Middle East countries.

Police suspect that the trio have cheated at least 35 women in a similar manner.

The accused were produced before a court on Monday which remanded them in police custody till November 2.

They have been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, the official said.