Once upon a time, this Steel City earned notoriety for being a centre for flesh trade. But after crack down by police in certain areas including Chhend Kalinga Vihar, Civil Township, Koelnagar, Gopabandhupali and Malgodown, curtains were almost down on such dirty activities here. But on Tuesday again, flesh trade once raised its ugly head in the city with busting of a brothel in sector 15 slum and arrest of its woman king pin.
A girl from Sector-17 had gone missing in November 2011 while she had been to Sector-18 market. After seven days, her parents came to know about her abduction and lodged a complaint with police. But the police failed to trace the hapless girl. late it came to fore that after engaging the girl in flesh trade in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar for about 10 months, the lady king pin of the racket brought her to here and started business. Then after a raid was conducted by police the girl was rescued in a very pitiable condition. She had been physically and mentally completely shattered and was unable to speak properly. To bring her back to normal, her parents started sending her to learn tailoring. But unfortunately on October 23 last, she was again kidnapped. On November 22, her parents got a call from her from an unknown number. They immediately informed the police. After inquiry, police came to know that the number belonged to a gas supplier, who is also a customer of the lady king pin. Then the police swooped down on a brothel in sector 15 and rescued the girl, but the accused duo Ahammed Khan alias Naki and her kept Ranjita managed to flee. However, police succeeded to arrest Ranjita on Tuesday night and forwarded her to court.
Similarly, a Class-VI student of DAV School here went missing on April 4, 2013 on her way to attend her friend’s birth day at Panposh. She has so far remained untraced.