A 21-year-old girl from Uttarakhand pursuing a BSc course and a 16-year-old girl from Bihar, both allegedly abducted and forced into prostitution, were rescued by police from a brothel in Budhwar Peth on Thursday. While the 21-year-old was duped by a man who promised to marry her but sold her to a pimp, the minor girl had been abducted from Siwan in Bihar and brought to Pune.

Acting on a tip-off from volunteers of an NGO, a police team led by inspector Bhanupratap Barge rescued the two girls from a building in Budhwar Peth red light area on Thursday afternoon.

Police said the 21-year-old girl is from Dehra Dun in Uttarakhand and was allegedly lured on the pretext of marriage about an year ago and sold to a pimp in Pune by a person identified as Anil. Barge said, “The girl told us that Anil used to study with her in college and had promised to marry her. She was sold to a pimp. She was threatened and all her modes of communication with her home were cut off. Anil is still at large.”

The police also had information about the minor girl from Siwan and rescued her. Barge said, “She had studied till class X. She told us that she was on her way to a town near her village for college admission along with her brother, when some people told her they would get her a job. She was kidnapped by them and brought here. She was also forced into prostitution in the same place.”

Police have arrested two women managers of the brothel. Police have booked them suspects under the the IPC for abduction, and the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act. Source