A 24-year-old woman paid a high price for her steadfast refusal to indulge in prostitution. Her breasts were slashed, her teeth knocked off and parts of her body burnt allegedly by a brothel keeper and her two aides at Bhiwandi in the neighbouring Thane district.
The Bhiwandi police have arrested a brothel keeper, identified as one Ruby (34), for allegedly maiming the victim woman who had been brought to the powerloom town and “sold” to the vice den by some middlemen. Two of Rubi’s aides, Alam and Afraz, who were part of the crime indulged in by her, have absconded. The police have spread a dragnet for the missing duo.
The horrendous crime took place on March 19. Soon after the incident came to light on Saturday, the police arrested Rubi, a brothel keeper residing at Hanuman Tekdi locality at Bhiwandi.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that some middlemen brought the victim woman from Gujarat and “sold” her to the brothel run by Rubi. The brothel keeper asked the victim woman to entertain the customers frequenting the place. However, when the victim woman refused to toe the line, she was allegedly beaten up, her breasts were slashed, some of her teeth were broken and private pats were stubbed with cigarettes allegedly by her brothel keeper who was not ready to take no for an answer.
After rescuing the victim woman from the brothel, the police initially rushed her to the civic Indira Gandhi Memorial (IGM) Hospital at Bhiwandi, from where she was shifted to the Thane district civil hospital for treatment.The police said that the victim woman was still in a state of trauma and was not in a position to record her statement on the shocking ordeal she allegedly underwent at the hands of the brothel keeper and her two aides.
The police have booked Rubi and her two aides under sections 325, 326 rw 34 of the IPC (causing hurt) and also 370(1); 370-A(24)(2) (buying or disposing any person as a slave) and sections 4, 5 and 6 of Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act (PITA).Rubi, the arrested brothel keeper, was produced before a holiday court at Bhiwandi which remanded her in police custody till March 25.