Thane crime: Couple held for running sex racket in Thane district; three women rescued

Representational Pic/File

Thane crime: The Thane Police in Maharashtra have arrested a couple and rescued three women involved in a sex racket in the Kashimira area of Maharashtra's Thane city, an official said on Friday, reported the PTI.

According to the PTI, acting on a tip-off, the MBVV police's anti-human trafficking cell (AHTC) conducted a raid at the Hatkesh locality of Kashimira on Wednesday afternoon and caught a couple and three women, senior inspector Sameer Ahirrao said.

The police had received information that the couple allegedly ran a sex racket under the pretext of organising dance shows. They would send photographs of women to customers on WhatsApp, he said.

The accused allegedly took the women outside the state to Goa and Bengaluru in Karnataka, and also to Lonavala, Mumbai, Thane and Mira-Bhayander, the official said.

The police arrested Ayan alias Mohammad Shahrukh Khan and his wife Jyoti alias Rehan Sultana and rescued three women, he said.

An offence under section 370 (human trafficking) and other relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Immoral Traffic Prevention (PITA) has been registered against the duo.

Meanwhile in an another incident in Thane, the police busted a currency exchange racket and arrested eight persons for allegedly duping an owner of a hardware shop in Navi Mumbai of Rs 3,000, an official said on Thursday, reported the PTI.

The arrest was made on Wednesday morning, he said.

According to the PTI, The victim, a resident of Jogeshwari, a suburb of Mumbai, in his complaint said that the accused approached him on Tuesday might saying they would give a good rate of currency exchange to him. The victim runs a hardware shop at Vashi in Navi Mumbai, the police said.

"Believing them, he gave them Rs 3,000 for currency exchange and in return they handed him a bundle saying it contained US dollars. After they left, when the victim checked the bundle, he found that only one US dollar note was placed on the top and bottom, while the rest of the bundle comprised only blank papers," the official said.

After he realised that he has been cheated, the victim approached the police and lodged a complaint.

The police initiated a probe, tracked down the accused and arrested them, the official of APMC police station in Vashi said.

(with PTI inputs)