Surat: 15-year-old girl pushed into flesh trade rescued

SURAT: A sordid tale of a 15-year-old girl being kidnapped and pushed into flesh trade came to light in the city after the minor found weeping on a footpath on Vesu Canal Road narrated her ordeal to the police that rescued her.


The girl, daughter of a tea seller in Karjan, escaped from one of the massage parlours where she was allegedly forced into prostitution by a woman named Muskan Mohammed Dadhi Shaikh, a resident of Azad Nagar .

Shaikh and four others were detained and they will be arrested after her Covid-19 tests.

Some alert citizens informed police seeing the girl wailing on the footpath.

Muskan and the girl's father knew each other and it was on July 20 that came near his house. She asked the girl to come along and promised to give her money. The girl's father did not know that she had gone with Muskan.

Shaikh then took the girl to her house in Bhatar and next day, took her to a massage parlour in Money Arcade in Vesu area. After discussions with the person sitting on the counter, the girl was sent into a room in the parlour. Police said that different men visited the parlour and allegedly raped the girl.

After keeping her for a day there, Muskan took the girl to her house and the next day to another parlour. She was allegedly raped in massage parlours in Marvella and Roongta commercial complexes.

The girl did not approach her family initially since she feared that her father would scold her as she had disappeared from home without informing anyone. “But the sufferings became unbearable for her after a few days and finally she decided to escape,” said police.

On Sunday, she escaped from one parlour but couldn't find a way to reach the railway station and was crying on the footpath on Vesu canal road. Some alert citizen spotted her and called the police control room.

“I went to the spot on being alerted by the control room. She was too traumatized and was weeping inconsolably. Our women staff and 181 counsellors pacified her and got some basic details . We were shocked to know her trauma,” said M L Salunke, police inspector, Umra police station. The girl revealed all the details after her parents arrived on Monday.

“After getting the details, police traced the suspects and detained immediately after registering the complaint,” said Vidhi Chaudhary, deputy commissioner of police, zone III.