The city police have invoked the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 against the accused who were running a flesh trade at an illegal spa raided and shut down by the police recently.
The victims in two of the recent cases belong to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. These victim were lured into the racket with a promise of good jobs, then cheated and forced into flesh trade. “Hence, we have invoked the SC-ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, apart from other laws meant to tackle human trafficking,” said City Police Commissioner B. Dayananda
The city police have cracked the whip on illegal spas that had mushroomed across the city and employed women therapists from different parts of the country and also women from neighboring countries often forcing them into flesh trade.
The city police conducted a series of raids since January, booked 21 cases, and rescued 118 women. Apart from this, 39 people have been booked for various violations.
Among these 21 cases, Whitefield division has reported the highest number of cases, five, in which 22 women were rescued and 11 persons arrested. The Whitefield division had most number of illegal spas which are under the radar of the police and the CCB.
It may be recalled that on January 9, the women protection wing (WPW) of the CCB raided Nirvana International Spa at Mahadevapura’s Pai Layout, rescuing 40 women from Thailand, Delhi, and other regions.
The spa owner, Anil, was booked for running the racket. The police found that the accused had allegedly lured and forced women employees into prostitution. He had also employed 20 to 25 people to manage his business, which included collecting payments from the clients, a majority of whom are from IT industries.
