Price of dream job: Ticket to Uganda bars

It was September, 2003. Anita, originally from Bauli — a village near Jalgaon — had worked as a construction labourer in Jogeshwari before turning to dancing to earn Rs 10,000 a month.

Nilesh took her to a room in Gorai where she met his associates: Ashish Singh, Sushant Sarkar alias Babu Bengali, Vikky Singh alias Kapil, and Sunil Singh. They paid her the Rs 50,000, then deducted Rs 15,000 to pay for her passport and visa application, before flying her out alone on Kenya Airways flight 412, on October 8, 2003.

Illiterate, she had no idea that her ticket and visa were for Kampala, Uganda, and not Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She landed in Nairobi and connected to Kampala. There she was met by Ravi Singh, the gang’s point man in Uganda. At first, Singh and his wife Revati seemed kind to her.

Two days later, Ravi asked her to dance for Sudhir and Reddy, owners of the Daawat Restaurant in Kampala. But the real nature of the work he wanted her to do, soon became clear.

‘‘I was severely assaulted when I refused to oblige,’’ recalled Anita. ‘‘They tore my clothes and Revati even smeared my private parts with chilly paste.’’ She spent the next week locked in a room with no food and little water.

Ravi then took her to Sudhir and Reddy for the second time. When she resisted them, she was raped.

Anita discovered there were about 20 other Indian girls forced into prostitution in Kampala. Ravi, considered one of the biggest suppliers of girls in Uganda, held them captive separately.

Over the next five months, Anita was repeatedly beaten and raped by Ravi Singh’s goons. Finally, she snapped: She swallowed bleach and ended up in hospital. Frightened his racket would be exposed, Ravi sent Anita on the first flight back home.

After reporting her ordeal to the Mumbai police, all gang members except Nilesh and Sunil Singh were arrested. Police are now working on extraditing Ravi Singh from Uganda.