Kendrapara: Patkura police Wednesday arrested three persons for forcing minor girls into prostitution and operating a sex racket at Shree Sai Guesthouse near Sum Hospital in Bhubaneswar, said Kendrapara SP Nitinjeet Singh.
The arrested persons were identified as Sanjay Hati, the pimp, his wife Jhilirani Mallick and his father-in-law Gurucharan Mallick. Police also seized a four wheeler, four mobiles and some SIM cards from their possession.
According to Singh, a Dalit minor girl after escaping from the clutches of the pimp reached her village and lodged an FIR with Patkura police Tuesday.
The girl Kabya (name changed) , a Class-X student, along with her friend Yamu (name changed) fled from their village January 10 after being lured by Sanjay on the promise of jobs in a Andhra Pradesh-based company. A girl Mali (name changed), a relative sister-in-law of Sanjay, helped the latter in the scheme.
However, when the girls were taken to Bhubaneswar, they were forcibly engaged in flesh trade at the guesthouse. Kabya alleged in her FIR she was forced to attend to customers at gunpoint and was physically assaulted several times. Sanjay and Jhilirani also threatened the girl not to disclose the matter to her family and restricted her from communicating with her family, Kendrapara sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Purnachandra Pradhan said.
Fortunately, Kabya escaped from the clutches of the pimp and reached Tarada village under Patkura police station Sunday.
Kabya and Yamu were medically examined at Patkura community health centre Wednesday while Sanjay was taken in custody for further interrogation, Pradhan said. Mali is yet to be arrested. PNN