crime branch

rescued

girl

pimp

prostitution

Qureshi Nagar

racket

brothels

: The Mumbaion Thursdaya new-bornfrom an organised syndicate which was about to sell her to aforSenior inspector Mahesh Desai of the Unit 9 crime branch, which carried out a month-long operation to track down the gang, told Mirror Online that the three suspects, including two women, were nabbed fromarea of Bandra (west) on Thursday afternoon. They have been booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 370 (4)-- Prevention of Human Trafficking-- 34 (Common intention) along with the provisions under the Juvenile Justice Act.Sources in the crime branch identified the trio as 50-year-old Sharifa Pathan, a resident of Vashi Naka in Chembur, 23-year-old Aafrin Khan, a resident of Bainganwadi in Govandi and 26-year-old Mohammad Fazal Pathan, a resident of Vashi Naka in Chembur.An officer from the crime branch said that the sleuths were tipped off about the activities of an organisedthat was involved in selling new-born girls to pimps at variousin the city and outside for the purpose of prostitution. "The girls would be sold to brothels which in turn would push them into prostitution once they grerw up," the official said.Accordingly, a woman constable, impersonating as a prospective buyer, struck a deal with Fazal to buy a girl child. "The deal was struck for Rs 50,000," the officer said. As promised, Fazal turned up at Qureshi Nagar with the girl, believed to be 15-16 days old, at a designated spot. He was swiftly arrested. The two women were arrested subsequently from a shanty in the locality.The trio revealed that they had purchased the baby from a woman who had delivered her a couple of weeks ago, Desai said. "The mother had delivered the child at BYL Nair Hospital," the officer said.Explaining the gang's modus operandi, the officer said, they would be in touch with expecting mothers in desperate need of money, through a lady pimp. The gang would make some payments in advance to facilitate the delivery. The mother would be paid the rest amount once the child was handed over to them.In the present case, the gang had paid Rs. 5,000 in advance to the woman before the child was born. Another Rs. 15,000 was to be paid once the child was sold.Desai said that the woman had been abandoned by her husband sometime back and she came to Mumbai for a livelihood. "She was staying on the footpath in the western suburbs when the pimp contacted her and made the offer to sell the child upon delivery," he said adding that the hapless woman agreed to the proposal.The police have now launched a hunt for the woman pimp, even as the questioning of the trio is likely to reveal other deals made by them to sell infants in the past.