The MBVV police have arrested two agents who allegedly tried to force a 43-year-old casting agent into sex trade in Oman after sending her there with the promise of a job. The woman had alleged that she had paid one agent Rs 3 lakh for this.

The Kashimira police in Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar (MBVV) registered an FIR in the matter in August. A team of cops, under the guidance of Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone I) Jayant Bajbale, Senior Inspector Sandeep Kadam and Sub-Inspector Suraj Jagtap, caught the accused last week, said a cop.

The accused are identified as Ashraf Maidu Kaiveera, 46, from Karnataka and Namita Sunil Masulkar, 46, from Ghatkopar. The police said the investigation is underway to find out how many more agents are involved in this racket and the number of women they have pushed into sex trade.

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`An undercover op`

The complainant in the case claimed on Wednesday that this was an undercover operation by her NGO, Chhatrapati Maratha Samrajya Sanghatana. She told mid-day that families of some of the victims had come to the NGO with such complaints.

“I learnt that a gang of agents were sending women to Oman with the offer to work as a domestic help, a sales girl in malls, a nurse, etc. But once in Oman, these women were forced into sex trade,” she said.

“The families told us that the women, seeking jobs abroad, had found the contact numbers of the agents on Justdial. I called on one number and got in touch with Namita, who offered me a job in Oman. I reached Oman on July 27, 2022, and took videos and photos of other women and sent it to two of our NGO members who live there–Jitendra Pawar and Naveen More.

“When the agents in Oman learnt what I had done, they assaulted me and locked me up in a room with seven-eight other women. We removed the AC and ran out of there. I asked those women to go straight to the Indian Embassy,” she said.

The complainant said she had shared her “last location with her NGO colleagues and had told them to come for my help if I couldn`t be reached.” “They came and rescued me. Our NGO members paid Rs 1.6 lakh to Oman agents to get me out of there,” she added.

She claimed to have seen around 70 women from India, Sri Lanka, Africa, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Malaysia. Agents in Oman picked women and sent them to their customers. Once back to the camp, the women would share how the customers sexually assaulted them and forced them to work the entire day.

She returned to India on August 2 and filed a police complaint as a victim. Asked why she didn`t reveal her undercover operation before, the complainant said she first wanted the police to catch the gang members.

She said she has written to the prime minister, the Maharashtra chief minister and the officials concerned to free women in captivity in Oman. The police initiated the action after she approached the Maharashtra State Commission for Women.

August
Month the complaint was filed

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