TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Panjim police have chargesheeted a couple who are accused of running an international prostitution racket under the guise of spa and saloon and forcing trafficked girls into flesh trade.
The police filed two separate chargesheets alleging that Elton Furtado and his Thai wife Ratchanee Furtado were running brothels on pretext of massage centres under various sections of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 in judicial magistrate first class court. Panjim police said the offence also includes forcing girls into sex, living on their earnings and seizing their passports.
The couple, who owned both places, were arrested during the raids simultaneously carried out by two police teams in the presence of NGOs at Lanna Day Spa & Saloon and Lilavadi Spa & Saloon on September 1, 2012. They are presently out on bail.
Ten girls from Thailand, in their late 20s and 30s were rescued during the raids and lodged at Protective Home, Merces.
Police have examined 20 witnesses in its first chargesheet comprising 220 pages of the raid at Lanna Day, the second chargesheet of 350 pages has 34 witnesses examined. The statements of rescued victims of commercial sexual exploitation have also been annexed with the original copies of the chargesheet.
The fag end of 2012 saw a series of crack downs on places which police claimed were prostitution dens in the capital as well as other places including the northern coastal belt.
