Mumbai Police have arrested the mastermind behind a child trafficking racket through which around 300 children were sent to the US. Rajubhai Gamlewala, who hails from Gujarat, had started the racket in 2007 and used to charge Rs 45 lakh for each child sent to the US.

Some of Rajubhai's partners were arrested in March. However, there is no information about the fate of the children who were sent to the US.

Most of the children, in the age group of 11-16, came from poor families in Gujarat. Parents and guardians of the children used to sell them as they were unable to take care of them, says a police officer.

How the racket operated?

According to the police, whenever Rajubhai received an order from the US, he used to instruct his gang to find a poor family willing to part with their child for money.

They would also search for a family which had a passport for their child whose photo would resemble the child who was selected to be trafficked. They would then ask the family to rent them the passport.

Then they would hire the services of a carrier to take the child to the US but before that makeup would be applied on the child's face so that he resembles the photo on the passport.

The passport would be returned when the carrier got back from the US.

How the racket was busted

The racket came to light in March. Actor Preeti Sood had received a call from a friend informing that makeup was being applied to two minor girls at a salon in Versova. When Preeti reached there, she found three men instructing the staff to apply makeup on the two girls.

"I suspected that the girls were being readied for a brothel but once I got there it dawned on me that this was something far bigger and sinister," says Preeti.

"When I enquired, the men said they were sending the children to their parents in the US. I asked them to come with me to the police station but they refused. I was able to stop two of them and called the police while the third ran away with the girls," she added.

The police have arrested four men, including a retired police official's son.

Rajubhai was tracked with the help of a WhatsApp number he used for communicating with his gang members. Rajubhai has a criminal history and was earlier arrested for passport forgery in 2007.

A case under sections 373 (buying minor for purposes of prostitution) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against the gang.