Navi Mumbai: The Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) of the crime branch busted a prostitution racket at a lodge in Nerul and rescued four women after conducting a raid by sending a decoy customer on the night of March 6. Police arrested two men for allegedly working as pimps and accepting Rs 20,000 from a customer to provide women for prostitution at the lodge. The lodge manager was also arrested for allegedly allowing the two men to run the racket at his lodge.
Pruthviraj Ghorpade, senior inspector of AHTU, said the arrested accused pimps were Mohammad Hanif Rajaf Byari, 40, who hailed from Karnataka and previously worked as a waiter at a ladies bar in Nerul, and his aide Anwar Alam Isak Sheikh, 35, who hailed from Bihar and resided in Belapur village. The arrested manager was identified as Rajesh Sadanand Dhawale, 37, who hailed from Pune and resided in Govandi. The arrested accused were produced before the Belapur court that has remanded them to police custody till May 11.
He added, “As technical evidence, we have seized the CCTV digital video recorder installed near the cash counter at the lodge and also the mobile phones of the three arrested accused. The rescued women have been accommodated at a women’s shelter home in Mumbai.”