Mom, freed from wedding racket, pushes daughter into prostitution

NAGPUR: The social service branch (SSB) of city police on Friday rescued a 20-year-old girl whose mother had allegedly pushed her into the flesh trade to raise money for her marriage. The daughter was engaged to be married to a relative’s son on June 3 and the function was planned for later this year.
Anita Tembhurne, the mother, has been arrested and slapped with the stringent Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act at the Gittikhadan police station.The daughter has been sent to a government shelter home.
Interestingly, Tembhurne was herself ‘rescued’ by an SSB team, which undertook great risks, from Jhalawar district in Rajasthan where she had been sold off for Rs1.25 lakhs in October last year. The ‘buyer’ was further planning to sell her off for Rs4 lakhs when PI BM Powar’s squad rescued her.
Tembhurne, a 39-year-old widow, was set to be forcibly married to a man in Mou Borda village when police reached the scene. Five men, including a local schoolteacher and two other city women, were arrested.
Police said that Tembhurne had been engaging her daughter Anisha (name changed) into flesh trade from December last year. Customers would be brought to their residence at Krishna Nagar on IBM Road near Seminary Hills.
A decoy was sent by the police on Friday. Anita sent Anisha and the decoy to a secret room behind the bathroom inside the house.
When the SSB unit under Powar conducted the raid, they found Anisha’s younger sister too present in the house. But police said she was not indulging in any illegal activity.
This is the 22nd sex racket busted in the city this year by Powar and his team consisting of additional CP Shrikant Tarwade and DCP Deepali Masirkar.
“I was shocked to see Anita engaged in a sex racket. We had risked our lives to rescue her a year ago. At that time Anita had told us that she had a small cloth business. But, today, I have my doubts,” said Powar.
This is the second incident which has come to fore within 24 hours where daughters have been forced to indulge into sex trade by parents.
On Thursday, the SSB rescued a 23-year-old girl who was forced into it by her father Mohan Gaikwad. Police had arrested Gaikwad and another couple. Gaikwad had managed to keep the fact that he was the father of the girl until he was produced before court.