Sex racket busted in Koregaon Park

The social security cell of the Pune police crime branch busted a sex racket operating from a plush apartment on Lane number 7 in upscale Koregaon Park late Monday evening, arrested five men allegedly running the racket and rescued 12 women. One of the rescued women is from Uzbekistan, seven are from Bangladesh, one is from Nepal and three are Indians, said police, who suspect it to be part of a larger inter-state racket.

The arrested suspects were identified as Ramdev Kharbu Yadav (37) of Hazaribag in Jharkhand, Ismail Kausar Shaikh (23) of Latur, Vyankatesh Vegannarao (38) of Andhra Pradesh, Yogesh Suresh Pawar (27) of Nagpur and Mahadev Musule (25) of Nanded. All of them were residing on third floor of E/3 apartment in Gold Field Plaza, Lane number 7 of Koregaon Park.

Acting on a tip-off from local MNS corporator Babu Wagaskar, a social security cell team led by inspector Bhanupratap Barge contacted one of the suspects through a decoy customer. Police said that after confirming that a sex trade racket was operating, a police team raided the Duplex Apartment and rescued the girls aged between 19 and 25 years.

The five arrested under the Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act (PITA) were produced before a magistrate on Tuesday afternoon. The court remanded the five suspects in police custody till January 31. Police believe the suspects are connected to a bigger inter-state racket. “Suspect Ismail Shaikh is a history-sheeter. We had earlier arrested

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