On November 9th a contact shared details about a minor girl that was being forced into prostitution in a brothel in Chandrapur, Maharashtra.
The next morning our team contacted the Superintendent of Police, SP, in Chandrapur and shared evidence we had about the suspected minor. We went to his office later on to talk more about the rescue. He agreed to initiate a rescue the next day.
On the morning of the 10th, we discovered that the victim we were tracking was not at the brothel. It was a difficult position because the police were waiting to raid the brothel. While we were working this out, we learned about another suspected minor who was being forced into prostitution at the same brothel and that the brothel keeper was charging Rs 10,000 (~120 US dollars) for an engagement.
The undercover team spoke to the brothel keeper to attempt to "engage" the girl, and she told us to come the next day. We gave the police an update and the rescue operation was moved to the next day.
On the 11th at about 12:08 pm, the police and our team raided the brothel and the suspected minor was rescued. The police arrested the brothel keeper, a young woman who appeared to only be between 19 and 20 years old. After the police bagged all the evidence and made their initial reports, the victim, the accused, and our team left to the Crime Branch where the initial reports were filed. At the local police station in Chandrapur we filed the First Information Report. Jansi, the suspected minor who was rescued, was taken for a medical test and then placed in a temporary shelter home for vulnerable women. On 12th November at about 2 am, all the procedures were completed.
The next morning, Jansi and brothel keeper Sarla were produced before a special court. The magistrate passed the order for Jansi be moved to a shelter home and Sarla be sent to jail. We do not know the details of how Sarla came to be in the position of a brothel keeper at such a young age, but we hope that this interruption of the path she was on will help bring positive change into her life as well.