A special CBI court here has sentenced three persons to three-year rigorous imprisonment on charges of immoral trafficking.
Special CBI prosecutor Vijay Sali told the court that the probing agency officials had conducted raids at two hotels in Vashi and a residence in Mumbai’s Chembur suburb in 2009, and arrested seven persons in connection with prostitution under relevant sections of the offences under the PITA act.
The raiding party had sent two decoy customers to Kuber restaurant at Vashi who were then taken to Sai Chatra hotel from where 21 girls were rescued.
Later, during raid at a house in Chembur, 13 more girls were rescued. The CBI officials seized from there albums containing pictures of girls and Rs 4.79 lakh cash, of which one note in the denomination of 1,000 turned out to be bogus, Sali told the court.
The prosecution examined as many as 14 witnesses, including the then CBI SP Pramod Mudbhatkal and inspector Sharad Bhawar.
The accused were tried under sections 120 (criminal conspiracy), 366-A (procuration of minor girl), 372 (selling minor for purposes of prostitution, etc) of the IPC and sections 4,5 and 6 of the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act of 1956.
Special Judge A A Walimohammad recently convicted the trio – Vitthal Mhasu Patil (28), Rajendra Saw alias Ranjit Shiv Charan Saw (30) and Raju @ Nanjunda Shivappa Gowda (29) – and sentenced them to three-year RI.
The three were also fined Rs 2,000 each, failing which they will have to undergo another six months’ imprisonment.
The four others arrested in the case were acquitted. One of the accused, Parwez Hamidulla Ansari, is still absconding, the court noted and ordered that the case against him will be dealt with later after his arrest.
The minor girls who were pushed into flesh trade were from various places, including Assam, West Bengal, Odisha, Indore, Madhya Pradesh and also Bangladesh.
