The Goa Police has arrested seven persons, including a television actor, from Odisha and rescued a minor girl from a hotel at Arpora, a report from Anjuna in Goa said.
Quoting the Anjuna Police, a newspaper report described it as a major prostitution racket. The accused brought the girl to Goa on July 7 after promising her a well-paid job in Goa and kept her in a hotel room at Arpora, taken on lease by a Mumbai-based person.
“At about 3.30pm on Monday, the girl managed to call the police and an Anjuna police team raided the hotel. The police found the accused and the 16-year-old girl in the hotel room,” the report said.
The police identified the accused as Santosh Gocchi, Ghanshyam Shaw, Rubina Jela, Narayan lala, Suraj Raut, Shantanu and Deeptimayee Baria, all residents of Odisha.
Police said Shaw and Jela, who are married to each other and Baria, a television artist, acted as pimps. “Sources said the accused could not find customers for the girl in Goa during the past seven days, but she was used in Cuttack, Odisha, for prostitution purposes.
Police said the girl told them that the accused assaulted and molested her and were living on the earnings of her prostitution activities,” the report said.
The Goa Police have registered an offence under Sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Immoral Traffic Act 1956, Sections 420, 370-A, 372, 354-A, 342, 323 of IPC and Section 4 of POCSO Act 2012 against the accused.