Hossen Sohel: Palghar police arrested a man whom they believe has trafficked over 500 girls from Bangladesh and pushed them into flesh trade in Mumbai, reports Asian Age.
A case of human trafficking has been registered by Palghar police against Mohammad Saidul Shaikh (38) from Manpada in Dombivali area of Thane district.
According to police, there are at seven cases against Shaikh but more are likely to come to the fore with his arrest. Police inspector Jitendra Venkutty associated with the case said the accused would get about about Rs 4,000-5,000 as commission for selling a girl and every month would get more.
Shaikh has also been accused of bringing women, especially minor girls from Bangladesh for which he would get over Rs 1 lakh from prospective customers. The girls were brought on the pretext they would get jobs. According to police some of his agents in Bangladesh would even entice minor girls into some sort of love affair and then bring them after crossing the international border.
According to police, they had received information regarding this almost a year ago after four minor girls were rescued from flesh trade who recounted their situations and gave statements in which they named Shaikh.
Crime branch sleuths say he was also involved in illegal hawala transactions across the border. Policemen say Shaikh himself is from Bangladesh but had been operating in India since 2010.
Venkutty said he had been on police’s radar for quite some time but it was only after they received a tip off from their informers that they managed to arrest Shaikh.
So far seven people have been arrested by the police and seven people are still yet to be arrested. Shaikh was presented before a local court and was taken into police custody for further investigations.