9 girls rescued from India's red light district

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CNN: http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/02/9-girls-rescued-from-red-light-district-in-india

 

Editor's Note: In the recent documentary "Nepal's Stolen Children," CNN followed actress Demi Moore and 2010 CNN Hero of the Year Anuradha Koirala as they try to rescue women and girls from forced prostitution, especially girls trafficked from Nepal into India.

A few days after the documentary aired, Indian police raided a brothel in New Delhi's red light district, rescuing nine girls. Rescue efforts like this are becoming more common in India as police begin to make it a priority.

 

By Mallika Kapur and Sumnima Udas, CNN

 

The suspected manager of a New Delhi brothel where police recently rescued several underage girls has been charged with kidnapping, rape and forcing girls into prostitution, a police officer said Tuesday.

 

One of the girls rescued is 10 years old, said Triveni Acharya, the president of the Mumbai-based Rescue Foundation, an anti-trafficking group that tipped off police.

 

The 38-year-old suspect has been charged with kidnapping, the kidnapping of minors, forced prostitution, rape and operating a brothel, Station House Officer Surinder Kaur said. Under Indian law, prostitution is legal, but profiting from another person's prostitution is not.

 

The woman has been jailed under India's Immoral Traffic Prevention Act. Kaur said she could not release the woman's name but described her as an Indian citizen and a former prostitute herself.

 

Investigators have 90 days to present their case to a court, Kaur said.

 

Meanwhile, Kaur said she hopes to arrest the brothel's owner soon. Brothel owners are rarely on-site and are typically hard to track down, Acharya said.

 

Five of the nine girls taken from the brothel have been confirmed to be underage, and tests are pending on the remaining four, Kaur said.

 

Three are Indian, and the remaining six are from Nepal - the source of a steady supply of sex slaves for the brothels of Delhi and Mumbai, many of whom are forced into prostitution by traffickers.