A girl, who was engaged in flesh trade within a beauty parlour in the city, was rescued by the activists of a city-based social organisation and then handed over to the Commissionerate Police here on Friday. It became the second incident in last two weeks after a woman was rescued by the activists of the State Progressive Women Forum from the capital here.
The girl was spotted by Odisha Vikash Parishad secretary Rudra Narayan Sahu while moving in an auto-rickshaw near Rabi Talkies four-days ago.
After seeing a girl sobbing in a passenger boarded auto rickshaw, Sahu inquired about her problems. The girl told him the whole matter about how the parlour owner was exploiting her by engaging her in sex trade.
The 19-year- old girl was a native of a border village in Bangladesh. Raju, a youth of her country, motivated her to work in a cottage industry in Odisha. As embroidery work is in demand in the State, she came here to earn a living, believing Raju. The girl had reached in the city 17 days back to start her work, but she was engaged in the Kalki Hairstyle, a parlour in Rabi Talkies square and allegedly forced to get involved in the flesh trade.
“If police arrest Raju, the whole racket and a women trafficking chain can be unearthed,” said the activist Sahu.
Notably, the police have started a massive drive to arrest the persons involved in the sex racket after a complaint was lodged on September 13 by Sandhyarani Samantray, whom a person named Prasant Kumar Sahoo alias Bapi had engaged in flesh trade in city. Acting on the complaint, the Mahila police have arrested a kingpin of a sex racket Rina Behera and detained 40 others involved in the case.