Court extends police custody of lady pimp in sex racket case

Aurangabad, Maharashtra, Apr 26 (UNI) A local court today extended the police custody till April 28 of a lady pimp and remanded four others to judicial custody in the case of sexual exploitation of a minor girl, who had allegedly named top policemen and a scribe.

The accused including the woman pimp Shamim Tabassum alias Bhabi (50), Qaisar Siddiqui (40), Sheikh Feroz Shaikh (30), Yousef Khan (32), and Feroz Khan (30), were produced before the local court by police Inspector Khushalchand Baheti, who has been investigating the sensational case of sexual exploitation of a minor girl.

Though, the police have not yet revealed the names of other suspects, the girl had named in her re-recorded statement, at least four policemen, including three senior officers, and three other prominent persons - one scribe and two political activists.

''There is a possibility of involvement of policemen and prominent people in the case, but we don't want to disclose the same at the moment,'' Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) Eknath Budhwant told reporters here today.

The police are making efforts to arrest the suspects named by the 15-year-old girl, who was rescued' by the Kranti Chowk police on April 22 from a city lodge, when five persons, including the woman pimp, were planning to take her to Mumbai to sell her off, police sources said.

The five accused, arrested in the case, have been booked under the Prevention of Immoral Traffic Act (PITA).

The case, however, took a new dimension after the court asked the police to re-record the statement of the victim in the presence of a representative from an NGO.

Accordingly, the police had recorded her statement for about eight hours yesterday. They are now on a look out of the suspects the girl had named in the statement, sources added.

UNI