Sympathetic customer, cab driver help free Bangladeshi woman from flesh trade

MUMBAI: A sympathetic customer and a proactive cab driver have helped a 24-year-old woman from Bangladesh flee from a prostitution racket after she was brought to the city under the garb of getting a job.
On August 26, the anti-human-trafficking unit of the Navi Mumbai police received a call from a Mumbai-based NGO informing them that a woman from Bangladesh who had managed to get herself out of a prostitution racket would be waiting near a mall in Navi Mumbai in an Uber taxi.
The unit was also able to nab the traffickers: 27-year-old Amir Azam, who brought the woman to Mumbai after illegally crossing the India-Bangladesh border, and 35-year-old Shaifali Jahangir Mulla, at whose house the woman was kept in the initial days. The duo was caught after the woman, with the help of an Uber driver, laid a trap for the traffickers when they reached the mall to take the 24-year-old back.
The woman, a single mother, reached India on July 11 after being assured of a better life for her family. After being married off at 15, her husband had left her in 2020 and taken custody of their son. Soon after, her father, the primary earning member of their family, passed away and her mother was diagnosed with stomach tumours. While searching for a job, the woman came across Amir, who used to run a small printing shop in her village.
“Amir promised her a good job in India. He said that his sister lives in Mumbai, and she can get a job for her in a hospital,” said advocate Trupti Patil, a member of the Mumbai District Legal Services Authority, which is assisting the prosecution in the case. However, what transpired was different from the future she was promised.
How she reached Mumbai
Amir and the woman left their village in Bangladesh on July 7 and took different trains and buses to reach the Howrah railway station in West Bengal. “The duo reached Mumbai on July 11 and went to Shaifali’s one-bedroom house in Nerul. Shaifali promised the woman a job in a hospital at Grant Road,” said Patil.
However, Amir then started sexually harassing and raping the woman regularly, added Patil. On July 13, Shaifali took the woman to a hotel at Grant Road and asked her to go to the third floor for a prospective hospital job. She eventually got to know that it was not a hospital, but a brothel. “Shaifali and Amir threatened her that her son and mother back home would be harmed if she didn’t cooperate with the people out there,” said Patil.
When she fell ill, the brothel owner told Shaifali to take her back. Soon after, she was drugged and forcefully taken to another place by unknown men in a taxi. “She had no clue about the second place that she was taken to because they had kept her blindfolded throughout and took her to a big hotel in the city where rich customers used to come,” said Patil.
“She was treated inhumanly throughout. She also fell sick in between and was not given proper food or clothes. She was beaten and assaulted by the people in charge of the second place. She had to entertain multiple customers every day, against her wishes,” added Patil.
Shaifali and Amir didn’t even pay the woman the entire amount owed to her which, according to her records, was somewhere around ₹90,000, Patil said.
The escape
However, the woman eventually found a customer in the second brothel who helped her find an opening to escape. According to Patil, the woman told the man she no longer wanted to do this work and was brought there against her wishes.
The customer, who sympathised with her, managed to take her to his home after threatening the brothel owners. “However, when his wife refused to keep the woman in their house, he had to let her go,” said Patil.
The customer then booked an Uber for the woman and instructed her to tell the driver where she wanted to go. “The only place she knew by name was Panvel, so that’s what she said. She also managed to buy a phone for herself using the small amount given to her by the accused,” added the lawyer.
During the ride, the woman got in touch with one of her friends in Bangladesh and recounted the events in Mumbai. The friend subsequently got in touch with a Bangladesh-based nonprofit, which contacted Freedom Firm, a Mumbai-based NGO working to end sex trafficking of children, and told them about the woman’s situation.
On the night of August 26, a social worker associated with Freedom Firm called Prithviraj Ghorpade, the head of Navi Mumbai police’s anti-human trafficking unit. They got in touch with the cab driver and got the details of their whereabouts. “She knew a little bit of Hindi, and the driver was able to figure out the whole story eventually. He then talked to the anti-trafficking unit officers and explained the situation to them.”
“We told the cab driver to tell her to call the accused to the Seawoods Grand Central Mall in Navi Mumbai,” said Ghorpade. The anti-trafficking unit subsequently grabbed the duo, and a case was registered against them at the Nerul police station. According to Ghorpade, the Navi Mumbai anti-human trafficking unit has registered around 15 cases this year.
“Many times, these agents lure women who are in need of money due to their social situations,” said Patil. “The promise of Mumbai being a city of dreams is also there.”
The rescued woman has been taken to a shelter home. “She said she wants to go home as soon as possible to meet her mother and son,” added Patil.