Charge-sheet filed in GB Road prostitution ring, MCOCA slapped

Delhi Police on Monday filed charge-sheet in the GB Road trafficking and prostitution racket unearthed last year, in which the accused have been booked under the stringent MCOCA provisions.

Police claimed that this is the first time provisions of MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) have been invoked against those accused of human trafficking. The charge-sheet, filed before additional sessions judge Vimal Kumar Yadav in the Tis Hazari court, names 10 persons as accused. The main accused husband-wife duo of Afaq Hussain and Saira Begum are in judicial custody. The proceedings to declare three accused as Proclaimed Offenders have been initiated and 18 properties worth Rs 246 crore have been identified, police said.

"The charge-sheet was prepared after a six-month of exhaustive investigation and contains 3,895 pages," said Ravindra Yadav, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime). Investigation is still on and supplementary charge-sheets will be filed at the earliest, he said.

More accused persons are to be identified and arrested in this case and more properties to be traced out, he added. In order to curb ghastly activities of this syndicate of human trafficking and prostitution operating at GB Road, Crime Branch had launched massive action and invoked MCOCA.

The arrests were made last year starting from August after a thorough study which revealed that more than 80 per cent "business" at the GB Road is controlled by two-three operators and their "own" network of agents, police said. The husband-wife duo Afaq Hussain and Saira Begum were identified as such operators who controlled everything through their handpicked 'Kotha' managers known as 'nayikas' and musclemen.