DCW helps bust sex racket in North Delhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 19

A prostitution racket was busted after the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) received an anonymous call on its helpline 181 about a prostitution racket being run from a house in his neighbourhood in Aman Vihar in the national capital.

A team from the DCW reached the area yesterday early morning and interacted with the residents who confirmed that a sex racket was being run from a house in the area during day time. The team watched the house discretely and observed that first four girls entered the house around 10.30 in the morning. Thereafter, one girl left the house after 15 minutes. Soon men on motorcycle and scooters started coming to the house. They would call on phone before being allowed to enter the premises. Bamboo chiks covered the house in such a way that it was impossible to see what activity was going on inside.

The DCW team called 100 number and thereafter entered the premises with the police in late afternoon. The team found six-seven men and three girls in the house.

On realising that they were caught red-handed, the owner of the house, a man called Gautam, opened a back door to allow the four boys to escape, who were caught by the residents surrounding the house.

Before the DCW team could talk to the three girls, Gautam told them not to say that they were doing this against their will since they were being paid by him. He also tried to negotiate with the DCW team to settle the matter.

The DCW team took all persons to the Aman Vihar Police Station where the girls stated that they were adults and were engaging in prostitution on their own will. They said they received Rs 250 per client and each woman had to sleep with at least seven clients during the day. While one woman informed that she was an orphan, another stated that she was victim of physical abuse by her drug-addict husband and had chosen this way to support her family. The third girl, who was an Assamese, refused to say anything.

An FIR has been registered in the matter under Sections 3, 4, 5 and 8 of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956. The alleged agent, Gautam, has been arrested.

DCW chief Swati Maliwal said, "Prostitution is the worst form of slavery. Women and girls are continuing to be commercially sexually exploited all over the country. It's a shame that this evil crime is occurring at such a large scale in the capital. While the women have claimed that they were indulging in prostitution on their own will, it's a fact that they are being exploited. No woman can sleep with seven men in a day unless she is forced to do so. I believe that these women had been trafficked at one point of time and now are trapped as they feel that there is no alternative."

She said the commission shall counsel the women and try help them gain meaningful employment and demanded strict action against the owner of the brothel by the police and the brothel be sealed.