Mumbai: Mumbai Police have busted a human trafficking racket in which Bangladeshi women were lured to India with false promises of jobs and later forced into prostitution for a fixed monthly salary. Acting on specific intelligence, a special team under Zone 11 rescued 14 Bangladeshi women and arrested eight individuals involved in the racket.
The operation began on June 7, when Malvani Police received information about suspicious Bangladeshi nationals staying illegally at Plot No. 26 near the District Collector Ground, Malvani. During the raid, the police found three Bangladeshi women and one man. Upon interrogation, the police uncovered links to an international prostitution syndicate.
The women revealed that they had been brought into India under the pretext of employment but were instead coerced into prostitution. Based on their statements, police arrested an agent named Mansar Mohammad Shakeel and sent the three women to a shelter home. The revelation prompted DCP Anand Bhoite (Zone 11) to form a special investigation team comprising officers from Malvani, Borivali, and Kandivali police stations.
According to the police, the mastermind of the trafficking network is a Bangladeshi national named Farooq, who operated through a network of agents in West Bengal. Farooq targeted underprivileged women aged between 19 and 30 in Bangladesh by offering fake job opportunities in India with promises of salaries ranging from ₹40,000 to ₹50,000.
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Once they arrived in India, these women were handed over to middlemen like Jahangir, who sheltered them in West Bengal. From there, agents Shaheen Maldar and Mohammad Razak arranged their transport to various handlers in Mumbai. The women were made to work in prostitution rackets, receiving monthly salaries, of which 10% was taken by the agents, and the remaining amount was sent online to their families in Bangladesh.
To hide their identities, the local accused in Mumbai even provided fake Aadhaar cards, showing the victims as Indian citizens. So far, eight people have been arrested and 14 women rescued in the ongoing crackdown. Police believe the racket is deeply entrenched and are currently hunting for other absconding accused linked to the syndicate.
