Malad sex racket:2 victims come forward

TNN / Sep 24, 2005, 03:06 IST

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The police seem to be making headway in Malad sex racket case with 2 of Parmar's victims registering their complaints.

MUMBAI: The police seem to be making some headway in the Malad sex racket case in which naturopath Pradeep Parmar was booked for filming his patients in the nude and later blackmailing them for sex.
On Thursday, two of Parmar's victims registered their complaints with the police. Their statements were taken down by women officers following an assurance that their identities would be kept a secret.
Senior officials said the case was now being treated with utmost sensitivity. "Women hesitate to come forward in such cases, often because they lack support from their families. They fear that if their names are disclosed at any point, their lives would be ruined," said a women's rights activist.
"Besides, it is impossible for victims to produce eyewitnesses in such cases." The police have deputed women police officers��sub-inspector Jyoti Bhosale of Malad police station and sub-inspector Giri from Kandivli police station��to handle the case.

Incidentally, zonal deputy commissioner Dattatray Karale, who is part of the probe team, had also investigated the Jalgaon sex scandal in 1994. "We are coming down strongly on any kind of immoral business that may be going on in the guise of beauty and massage parlours in the city," police commissioner A N Roy told TOI.
Roy has issued a circular to all police stations in the city, directing them to prepare a list of beauty and massage parlours in their jurisdictions and verify their antecedents and clientele.

One major drawback of the police case during the Jalgaon sex scandal was that most of the 27 victims, who had registered their complaints, migrated to other cities.
Besides, parents of several victims had turned hostile. The city police are therefore considering in-camera recording of statements in the Malad case. The police are also probing the role of Varsha Thakkar, a former employee of Parmar.
Thakkar allegedly has some of the CDs her boss recorded, according to a statement by Parmar's driver Vikas Buddhi. But the police are yet to question her because she is suffering from cancer and has been hospitalised.

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