Actor smelt a rat at salon, alerted cops to trafficking

MUMBAI: Child trafficker Rajesh Gamlewala’s racket was busted early March when actor Preeti Sood visited

Shringar Salon

in Versova one afternoon and got suspicious on finding three men instructing staff on how to apply makeup on two underage girls.


“When I asked the men, they claimed to be sending the children to their parents in the US. I told them to accompany me to the police station, but they refused. I managed to stop two of the men and called the police. Meanwhile, the third escaped with the girls,” Sood told TOI.

“I got curious when I got a call from my friend who was at the salon that two minors were getting makeup. I went there on asuspicion that the girls were being readied for brothels. Once there, I realized that the racket was bigger than I thought,” she said.

Sood got four men arrested by the Versova police, including a retired sub-inspector’s son. The four are Amir Khan (26; the policeman’s son), Tajuddin Khan (48), Afzal Shaikh (35) and Rizwan Chotani (39).

Gamlewala would instruct his gang to find a poor family, usually in Gujarat, willing to sell a child, and another family willing to rent out their child’s passport. A passport with a picture with some resemblance to the about-to-be trafficked child would be selected. The gang would then pay a carrier to take the child to the US on the chosen passport. Before that, makeup would be applied on the child for a stronger resemblance with the picture on the passport. The carrier would return after leaving the child in the US and return the rented passport. It is not yet clear how the passport would be stamped by immigration without its bearer’s presence.

Gamlewala was tracked with the help of a WhatsApp number he used to communicate with his accomplices.

“Gamlewala has been arrested before. In 2007, he was caught in Mumbai for passport forgery. We were led to his latest racket because of the March arrests,” said Versova police senior inspector Ravindra Badgujar, part of a team which cracked the case.

Supervised by DCP (Zone IX) Paramjit Singh Dahiya, it also comprised inspector Sanjay Pawar, assistant inspector Bharat Patil, sub-inspector Om Totavar and others.

The accused have been booked under the IPC’s sections 34 (common intention) and 373 (buying minor for purposes of prostitution). Gamlewala will be in police custody till August 18. His four cronies are in judicial custody.