2 Sep 2007,

NAGPUR: In one of the biggest such operations, police rounded up 75 commercial sex workers (CSWs) from Ganga Jamuna on Saturday evening. In simultaneous raids, personnel from crime branch, zone-III squad, and as many as five police stations swooped down on several brothels in the red light area and rounded up the CSWs. Deputy commissioner of police zone-III Madhukar Pandey, under whose supervision the raid was conducted, said, "We conducted the raid mainly to check whether any minor girls were involved in prostitution." It may be recalled that police had rescued a minor girl, who was forced into prostitution from the same area, on August 30. Sources said that Saturday’s raid may have emerged from the information provided by that girl, a native of Gondia. Police said about five girls picked up in the operation were suspected to be minors. "Although the detained girls were reluctant to divulge their ages, one can make a reasonable guess that they were minors," a source said. An officer said another hurdle in the way was that most of the girls were involved in prostitution on their own. "Unless it’s someone who has been forced into this trade, ascertaining the girl’s age is tricky," he said. The mothers, sisters or other relatives of these girls are also said to be involved in prostitution. Sources said they too were picked up in the raid. "We will now focus our attention on those girls whose parents do not know they are in this trade," said an officer. The detained CSWs are likely to be produced before the court on Sunday. After initial arrests, the police got clues about Agrawal’s involvement and arrested him along with six others. The nabbed persons have been remanded to police custody till August 4