NAGPUR: Undeterred by large-scale deportation of illegal immigrants from the US, two women in their mid-twenties from Punjab, rescued late Friday from a plush hotel in Sadar Chhaoni here, told police they joined the high-profile inter-state prostitution racket to raise funds for immigration to Canada.
While one of the women, a daughter of a village sarpanch, told police she joined the flesh trade to pay kickbacks to an immigration agent, the other woman claimed she needed money to finance her brother’s immigration fees.
Nagpur police were left stunned by their desperation to live their Canada dream, despite the risks involved. The rescued women also told cops immigration agents are active in several cities of north India, particularly Punjab. The daughter of a village sarpanch hailed from an affluent family, said a police officer, adding her brother works in the airline sector and her elder sister is a govt school teacher.
The woman, who sought to pay her brother’s immigration fees, narrated her traumatic childhood during interrogation. Married off at the age of 16, she became a teen mother, only to be abandoned by her husband. The two women were among the four rescued during a police raid to bust a sex racket.
The hotel owner, Chetan Chakole, along with his employee Yugant Durge, were arrested by the social service unit of crime branch inspector Kavita Isarkar. Durge, a third-year polytechnic student, joined the hotel industry for pocket money, while his boss, Chakole, rented out rooms to clients of sex racketeers, who would fly in women to the hotel. While three rescued women were from Punjab, the other was from Chhattisgarh. They were sent to govt shelter homes here.
Police sources said the raid exposed an interstate racket that operated online. An interstate agent, Rahul Ghatole, who was made co-accused along with Deepak, acted as pimps, who brought women from different states through local agents to Nagpur.
The women were flown into the city and sent to hotels to service clients and would make a minimum of ₹5,000 per hour, said police. “The amount earned by them would be shared by agents,” said an officer, adding travel expenses and hotel accommodation of the women would be borne by agents.
