On March 23rd, 2022, Freedom Firm rescued Fauzia and two other victims who had been forced to work in a brothel in Chandrapur, Maharashtra. Fauzia asked us to rescue her sister, Parsa, who had been trafficked to another brothel roughly 30 miles away. Fauzia’s rescue alerted other brothel keepers in the area, and we had to search carefully so that Parsa would not be hidden or moved. Although it was difficult to locate Parsa, we successfully rescued her on May 25th.
The police arrested the brothel keeper and collected evidence before everyone went to the police station. Contrary to standard protocol, Parsa was held in the same cell as her brothel keeper and our team was not allowed to visit her. While our team brought the case to court the next day, the brothel keeper’s son and some of his friends started threatening us. Our liaison officer quickly reported the harassment to the judge, who directed us to file a complaint at the police station. The brothel keeper’s son followed us to the station and continued to threaten our team as we filed the harassment complaint against him.
When we returned to court the following day, many people from the red light area were there watching us to intimidate our team. The police tried to give custody to Parsa’s alleged husband, but we are still investigating to verify he is Parsa's husband. Our legal advocate pleaded with the judge who agreed to send Parsa to a shelter home. Fauzia and Parsa are now living together in the same shelter home. Click HERE to read about what they are doing together. Thank you for bringing rescue to these two sisters!
Comments