As many as 41 women forced to work as sex workers were rescued by a team of Telangana police from Gautam Nagar area of Chandrapur city in eastern Maharashtra today.
K Venugopal Rao, superintendent of police, CID, Hyderabad, led the raid.
Rao told reporters here that 47 middlemen were also apprehended during the raid, which was conducted following a complaint from a girl who had been lured by a man with the promise of providing a job here, only to be forced into the flesh-trade.
The girl, who belonged to Nandigrama in Andhra Pradesh, managed to escape and approached the Hyderabad police.
Of the rescued women, 25 were from Telangana, 5 from AP and 11 from other states.
The raid was conducted with the help of police. “After producing them before a court at Hyderabad, the human-traffickers will be questioned to trace the kingpin of the racket. The women would be sent to rehabilitation centres after proper counselling,” Rao said.
Sub-divisional police officer Pralhad Giri said the local police provided as many as 97 personnel for the raid.