In a joint operation with the anti-human trafficking cell, Kankhal police busted a sex racket on Thursday and rescued three girls-all from Punjab- allegedly brought for Rs 50,000 here for 10 days- to be used in Haridwar for prostitution. Two persons were arrested from Uncha Pul in Kankhal. While one of the duo allegedly ran the prostitution racket form a posh colony in Kankhal the other was living in Amritsar, Punjab. Police informed that they used the social media platforms to attract the clients and after the deals were made the girls were sent to the local hotels for prostitution. The three girls had allowed themselves to be ensnared in the flesh trade trap because of the acute poverty of their families, police added.
Police further informed that one of them was working as a dancer in a disco bar at Chandni Chowk in Delhi. The other is a second year B.com student from Khalsa College in Punjab and the third is a divorcee who was lured by the traffickers in the name of providing her a job. They are all in their early twenties.
Speaking of the matter, SP City Mamta Vohra said, “The accused have been identified as Prince alias Akshay, resident of GT Road Dorabji in Amritsar and Vivek Kumar, a resident of Dwarika Vihar Kankhal, Haridwar. Vivek, a travel agent based in Haridwar, had good contacts with the hoteliers.”
She further said that upon being informed, the police team along with anti-human trafficking team had conducted a raid at Dwarika Vihar colony near Uncha Pul behind Gurukul Kangri University on Thursday morning. “Prince is the key operator of the sex racket who lured the girls and forced them into prostitution. As per the preliminary investigation, he brought the girls here for ten days for prostitution at a price of Rs 50,000. These girls were to be sent to hotels to satisfy the lust of his clients. Both the accused used WhatsApp and other social media platforms to attract the clients.”
Earlier, many such sex rackets operating in the city had surfaced which were run with the help of human traffickers. More than half a dozen sex rackets had been busted by local police over the past two months and the girls from Delhi, Bihar, Punjab, Nepal and Uttar Pradesh had been rescued. In the most recent incident, an 11- year- old girl from Bihar had been rescued by Haridwar police who was forced into flesh trade by a Delhi- based pimp who used to sell girls to Haridwar.