Mother-son duo among four held for flesh trade

After spending a few days at different places in Maharashtra,they recently came to Surat and started staying at the place of Shobha Tanna,a widow who lives with her son Hitesh at Parekh Nagar Society in Punagam.

On Friday night,when Prakash and Raj had gone out for “some work”,three persons turned up at Shobha’s house and met Puja and Rama. They left soon after without talking to them.

Suspecting something amiss,Puja managed to escape from the house during midnight and reached the nearby Punagam police station where she narrated the entire story to the police.

Soon,a police team rushed to Shobha’s house and rescued Rama. The mother-son duo,along with Raj and Prakash,who had returned by then,were arrested.

According to police,Shobha had been in this trade for the last eight years. The mother-son duo allegedly used to bring girls from states like Uttar Pradesh,Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and sell them to off farmers in Saurashtra.

Police inspector H L Ahir said,“The girls did not seem to know about the activities and intentions of Raj and Prakash. Rama is a married woman and mother of a two-year-old boy. We have learnt that Shobha and Hitesh use to sell off girls in Saurashtra for Rs 50,000-80,000 with the help of pimps. It seems to be an organised racket.”