"I am male. I am searching a young girl who should be in 16 to 20. send this details."
- a comment left on Wikipedia under "Red Light Area of Chandrapur"
The red-light area in Chandrapur has existed for decades. Customers search for young girls both by trolling the brothels in person and through searching the internet, just like this young man. Freedom Firm has worked to rescue girls in Chandrapur for the last 2 years. Here's the latest rescue!
Diksha
Our investigators heard about Diksha, a 17-year old girl forcibly engaged in prostitution in a brothel in Chandrapur, Maharashtra. Here is the sequence of events that led to her rescue.
24th September – We made the journey to Chandrapur to verify the lead. This particular brothel had three rooms and a room where the brothel keeper lived. Though the brothel rooms were dirty, it was actually better than other brothels. We located Diksha and the brothel keeper.
25th September – Rescuing 17 year old Diksha and 2 major girls
11:30 am - We met the SP (Superintendent of Police), shared Diksha’s information with him and a letter requesting his support for Diksha’s rescue. The SP directed us to the special task force that would be handling the rescue. We met with them and shared the rescue plan.
12:30 pm - The Additional Superintendent of Police, met with us and we discussed the rescue plan in more detail
1:30 pm - Two panch (third party) witnesses, two lady constable officers and four police staff joined us at the police
station.
2:45 pm - Once we received confirmation about Diksha’s presence at the brothel, we proceeded towards the red light area.
3:00 pm - The Raid
The police raided the brothel. Our social worker found Diksha with a customer in one of the rooms. We continued searching the brothel for more victims who were being forced into prostitution. We found one more victim (major girl) with a customer in another room and another victim (major girl) in another brothel. The main brothel keeper along with her assistant were sitting in a veranda outside the brothel. The police arrested both of them.
4:15 pm - The police started preparing their report. The third-party witnesses shared their statements. After evidence was collected and post rescue reports completed, the police, Freedom Firm team, three rescued victims and the two accused brothel keepers left the brothel.
4:20 pm - A few members of our team proceeded to the police station in Chandrapur and the rest of us accompanied the police for the victims’ medical tests at a government hospital.
5:15 pm - We returned with the police and victims back to the police station so that the police could record the victims’ statements.
7:45 pm- We proceeded to the City Police Station in Chandrapur to file criminal charges (a First Information Report, FIR).
10:50 pm - The FIR was filled. Two of our social workers took a copy of the FIR and took the victims to a temporary shelter home for women where they would be safe.
26th September
We spent the first half of the day meeting police personnel from various departments to thank them for their support.
3:00 pm
Our team along with the police, three victims and two accused proceeded to
the JMFC Court in Chandrapur. After going through the report, the judge passed an order for the victims to continue staying in the temporary shelter home till 7th October and for the accused to remain in judicial custody for the next few days. Our social workers are in the process of gathering information about Diksha.