Woman held for pushing girls into prostitution

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, May 29

A team of the West Bengal Police have arrested a woman on the charge of involvement in a child-trafficking-cum-prostitution racket in a joint operation with the Rohtak police.

The woman, identified as Geeta Saroj, had been residing in Rohtak and allegedly running the racket for about nine years.

The woman was arrested from the Asthal Bohar area in Rohtak on Monday. She was taken on transit remand by the West Bengal Police.

Haryana State Commission for Protection of Child Rights member BK Goel, who was present at the time of the operation, said no girl had been rescued from Rohtak and efforts were on to get details.

“Girls were sent from West Bengal in the name of jobs as domestic help or nurse through agents. The matter came to light when a trafficked girl managed to escape, returned to West Bengal and lodged a complaint in this regard,” Goel said on Tuesday.

A case had been registered at the Lake Town police station in Kolkata and some persons arrested from West Bengal. On the basis of information extracted from them, the police got to know about Geeta, based in Rohtak.

“She used to supply girls, mainly to university and college students. Several contact numbers were recovered from her. This was a big lead for us,” said Goel.

Rishi Kant, a representative of the NGO Shakti Vahini, said many cases had surfaced wherein minors were being brought to Haryana, Delhi and the NCR in the name of arranging jobs as domestic help and later pushed into prostitution.

Urban Estate police station SHO Parveen Kumar said the West Bengal Police had taken Geeta on transit remand. “If she reveals any information pertaining to our area during interrogation, we will take action accordingly,” he said.