Every year, many girls are trafficked out of Bangladesh with the promise of a better life abroad, only to end up in the underbelly of cities like Mumbai and Pune, India. An investigation by The Daily Star takes a look into this dark world that involves brokers and law enforcers on both sides of the border.

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In the bustling heart of Pune lies Budhwar Peth, India's third largest redlight area tracing back to the 18th century and home to around 110 brothels.

Bangla music from a shop selling tea and biscuits mixes with the horns and the chatter. Dotted amidst the shops that line its cramped narrow lanes are many old wooden door frames, some coloured powder blue or green but most left in their original shade, all with cracks that tell their age.

Standing in front of these door frames are hundreds of women, some old, some young, dressed in bright saris and skirts, chatting and laughing.

From the busy lanes, these door frames look like they lead to dark nothingness. One of these frames leads to a long corridor where the only light source is the lamp lit in front of photos of Hindu gods.

The corridor, that can barely fit two people, leads to a narrower corridor with three doors on both sides. The doors on the right lead to identical looking rooms with a single metal cot with a bare mattress and a pillow. The cot is flushed to the walls on three sides with only enough space to close the door on the fourth side. On the left, exactly opposite to each door is a small squat toilet.

The only light source in the space is the yellow light bulb in the corridor.

The exterior wooden walls of the rooms are tilting and the yellow oil paint, reflecting the light from the bulb, is peeling in many parts.

In rooms like these live some 800 to 900 commercial sex workers, and over 20 percent of them, numbering around 200 to 250, are Bangladeshi girls and women, multiple sources within rescue networks told The Daily Star.

Every year, many girls are trafficked out of Bangladesh with the promise of a better life abroad, only to end up in the underbelly of cities like Mumbai and Pune, an investigation by this newspaper has found. 

Many Bangladeshi sex workers, once victims themselves, now serve as brothel managers, perpetuating the vicious cycle. They employ fellow countrywomen, who later become traffickers responsible for bringing new girls from Bangladesh into the clutches of these brothels.

Pakhi (a pseudonym), a Bangladeshi woman, runs her own brothel.

The outfit is modest by any standards -- a rented flat where she guides five girls, earning Tk 12,000 per day through their sex work.

During our multiple visits to this brothel in May this year, we saw that whenever any customers came to a girl, the other girls gave them space and waited outside.

Fifteen years have elapsed since Pakhi, then a young 20-year-old woman from Jashore, left her home with her husband. The path to Budhwar Peth was not of her choosing.

What Pakhi thought was a blissful arranged marriage took a dark turn when she discovered her husband's gambling addiction, which plunged the family into financial turmoil. Her husband suggested they cross the border to Mumbai, where he promised better opportunities awaited. Naively, Pakhi agreed.

"We crossed the border by paying Tk 10,000 to brokers," she recounted of her journey in 2008.

But her husband and the brokers had a different plan, and Pakhi soon found herself sold to a brothel in Pune for two lakh rupees, about Tk 2.67 lakh in today's Bangladeshi currency.

The initial days were fraught with despair, as escape seemed impossible and Pakhi was not paid a single penny during this period, except for some tips from the customers.

"I only received cosmetics and food thrice a day," said Pakhi, while sharing the experiences. Food was basic meals of lentils, rice, and seasonal vegetables.

Pakhi explains that whenever any girls came to the brothel, they were trained to speak different languages so they could blend seamlessly into the Indian environment, concealing their Bangladeshi identity to avert law enforcers' eyes.

"I can now speak five to six languages -- Hindi, Marathi, Karnataka (Kannada), Gujarati, and Bangla," Pakhi says.

Two years later, she had "paid off" her "debt" and was allowed to start receiving payment for the sex work. At the time, she had to pay a percentage to the brothel manager for using the space and security.

Pakhi then had a new dilemma -- as a young sex worker stranded by her husband, she was unable to return home. She had no money and no valid documents. Compelled to stay back, she started a brothel of her own, she says. 

She managed four other girls, who were victims of trafficking like herself and subsequently freed from the brothel.

"We are now saving money to ensure an identity in India," she says.

Over the years, Pakhi has sent as much as Tk 10 lakh to her parents back home.

VICTIM AT THE BORDER

Only 60 percent of the 4,096 kilometre long Indo-Bangla border is fenced.

The Maheshpur border of Jhenaidah is notorious for its easy passage in and out.

Data from Border Guard Bangladesh's Maheshpur Battalion reflect the vulnerability of this point. Between January 1 and May 15 this year, as many as 75 individuals were apprehended here while attempting to enter India from Bangladesh. There were 22 women and six children among them.

The previous year, this unit apprehended 1,186 people trying to enter India from Bangladesh.

They also arrested 53 traffickers last year, and three more in the first four and a half months of this year.

But it is only a fraction that gets caught, with most walking in and out without detection. It is so easy that on May 15 this year, Joly Khatun, a survivor from Narail, had simply walked back across the border when our correspondents were coincidently at the border and met her.

Joly was returning home after escaping from a brothel in Mumbai where she had been entrapped for three months.

The girl was trafficked across the same border in the same way, by simply walking across the unmarked, unfenced geopolitical line.

It really is that simple -- multiple survivors have told The Daily Star that they were made to walk and were trafficked before they knew it.

The person trafficking Joly was a woman she met while working as a ward assistant at a clinic in Narail. The clinic paid her a meagre monthly salary of Tk 3,000 and the woman offered her a job in India with a lucrative monthly salary of over Tk 10,000.

Joly eagerly followed the woman, boarding a battery-run auto-rickshaw from Muchipol in Narail to Jashore, then a bus to Belemath Bazar in Jhenaidah.

There, they were joined for lunch with two other men.  This was actually the house of a carrier. Dozens of people gather in the house and stay until the carrier gives a green signal that the border is now clean and can be crossed.

After lunch, they were joined by a group of eight to ten other girls and three to four men. In broad daylight, the entourage walked across a deserted area across the border. An hour into walking, Joly came across a railway station.

At the station, Joly found people talking in Hindi and realised that she already left Bangladesh.

As she realised her situation, fear crept in, and Joly's questions were met with threats from the woman.

"Keep quiet or I will hand you over to the police," the woman threatened Joly.

From Kolkata to Mumbai and then Aurangabad by train for the next three days, Joly found herself in a house with 60 to 65 other Bangladeshi women.

Their lives were controlled by an Indian woman.

After three days, the Indian woman informed her that she was sold for 4.5 lakh rupees.

Every girl was given separate rooms. Joly's room had a bed, dressing table, and had a small washroom in the room. They were fed a miserable meal of watery lentils and rice thrice a day.

"They put out cigarette butts on my thigh, my neck, and my back when I refused to agree on their proposal. Then they locked me up in a room and did not give me anything to eat for the next two days," Joly told The Daily Star at the border showing the injury marks on her neck.

"They did not stop even after it. They used to torture with an empty stomach, so, I had to agree on their proposal," added Joly.

Amidst the darkness, Joly found solace in a Bangladeshi girl, whom she affectionately called her sister.

It was through her newfound ally that Joly reconnected with her mother and hatched a plan to escape. Joly's mother sold their land and sent Tk 1.95 lakh to the Indian woman holding her captive.

Joly tied a scarf to the rails of her second-floor balcony and climbed down. Her "sister" had prepped her with a cell phone and 1,500 rupees for the journey.  Once out, Joly first took an auto-rickshaw to the railway station at Aurangabad and went to Lokmanya Tilak Terminus station in Mumbai. From there, Joly took a train to Kolkata.

The "sister" had fixed a broker ahead of time. Joly met him and he helped her through the rest of the journey to the border.

After crossing the Indian border, two Bangladeshi brokers received her and kept her for a night in their house. When Joly came out of the house in the morning, the Border Guard Bangladesh at the Maheshpur border of Jhenaidah intervened and rescued her.

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The racket on prowl at the border

Adjacent to the border in Narail district's Maheshpur upazila, a hidden racket facilitating the illegal crossing of people thrives, operated by individuals known locally as "Dhurs" or carriers.

During the journey, The Daily Star managed to gain access to a dozen traffickers operating within the upazila.

These traffickers have turned Matila village into a hub for trafficking people, using border points like Rajkol, Pulia, Raounghat, and Bhovodashpur for trafficking. The carriers reveal that between 20 to 40 people, men, and women alike, are trafficked daily.

One of the leaders of these carriers with whom these correspondents spoke shared that their operations now primarily revolve around the Kule-Pachpitola and Anduli border points, while another entryway, Daulatpur, also remains open and unguarded.

The man was talking at the Jadabpur border point in Maheshpur Upazila.

The carriers demand payment ranging from Tk 5,000 to Tk 6,000 per person for facilitating illegal border crossings. The earnings fluctuate depending on the level of border security and the prevailing circumstances.

The carrier network operates with a chilling precision. Travellers seeking illegal entry are temporarily housed in border area residences for a day or two until the carriers receive a signal that the border is safe to cross. Under the cover of midnight or the early hours of the night, the travellers are quietly transferred to the other side of the border.

When asked how they managed to conceal these unknown individuals in border houses, the Dhur leader divulged a shrewd tactic. They pose the travellers as their relatives when questioned by law enforcement officials or local residents. To avail sanctuary in the border houses and access the perilous journey, travellers must pay a steep fee of Tk 2,000 per night, inclusive of food.

On why he chose this trade, the Dhur leader explains, "We barely earned Tk 300 for a day's work in the past doing menial job, but this enterprise yields no less than Tk 20,000 in a single night."

The repercussions of challenging the carriers are so severe, that no one dares to raise their voice. Those who attempt to confront them are ensnared in legal traps; phensedyl bottles are planted near their homes, leading to police raids and set-ups.

The Dhur leader said they provide a cut of the gains to on-duty police and BGB officials. Even when carriers face arrests, they miraculously secure bail within a day, aided by a group of lawyers.

When they fail to outsmart the BGB, they plant sacks of phensedyl in isolated locations, and then tip-off the BGB post about a narcotics consignment near the border.

A BGB unit's success is dependent on the amounts of recoveries made, and so they fall for the ruse. While the BGB moves to intercept the supposed drug consignments, the carriers clandestinely pass the people through.

Among the significant traffickers in Matila village is Md Wakimail, aged 47. Another perpetrator, Zia, brazenly doubles as a BGB lineman, collecting bribes daily from illegal crossings for the law enforcers.

Another carrier who these correspondents met at the zero line of Matila village said BGB, through their lineman, now demands Tk 1,000 for each person trafficked illegally.

Lt Col Masud Parvez, commander of BGB Maheshpur Battalion, refuted the allegation, and said they are trying their best to stop the illicit trade, and the trend is going down.

"People cross the border illegally for three reasons – treatment, employment, sex trade. It is often difficult to identify the trafficking victims," he told The Daily Star.

However, the price for passage is not fixed and fluctuates based on border situations, ranging from Tk 7,000 to Tk 13,000 and sometimes Tk 16,000, according to at least eight sources on both sides of the border who are directly involved in the trafficking.

At the Matila village, a small canal divides the two countries. During dry season, the water is knee-deep, but when monsoon hits, this canal can be treacherous.  Travellers are forced to cross, often stripped naked, regardless of gender.

The carrier said that if the women or girls being trafficked are deemed beautiful by the carriers, they are often sexually assaulted right on the border. The women are held captive for a night before being sent to the other side.

Adding to the network, local police stations demand their share. Through their linemen, they charge Tk 500 for each person smuggled across the border. The carriers, a cog in this dark machinery, must comply with the demands to evade trouble.

Khandker Shamim Uddin, officer-in-charge of Maheshpur police station, refuted the allegations and said they did not collect any toll from these traffickers.

"We take action whenever any complaint is received," he said.

"We mainly found people crossing the border without passports for treatment purposes. Sometimes, we found trafficking victims and lawful action was taken," he added.

An additional superintendent of police from Khulna Range, however, admitted that the border area police stations know everything.

"But actions are not taken against these traffickers as we receive benefits, tolls. Sometimes grassroots-level carriers are arrested but they get released within a day or two in the absence of strong evidence," said the officer, requesting anonymity.

Earlier, the traffickers were mainly seen using West Bengal as a transit route to traffic the girls to Mumbai from Bangladesh. But recently, they have started using the border points of Sylhet, and Brahmanbaria via Northeast India to Mumbai, according to law enforcement officials and NGO workers in India.

Along with the law enforcers, some ruling party men, and public representatives were found involved with the network, supporting these traffickers at the border, according to local traffickers, and our findings.

Sultan Ahmed Babu, a former Member of Benapole Ward-1 is named by locals as a prominent ringleader. Sadipur, a village in Benapole Ward-1, has become a den of traffickers, with locals being known to accommodate refugees in their houses in exchange for money.

Speaking to The Daily Star, Babu acknowledged that he traffics people.

"We helped them out on humanitarian grounds. We send them directly to the Maheshpur border of Jhenaidah by motorbike, which is around 50 kilometres from Benapole," he said.

Asked about the costs involved, Babu said, "I do not know about it clearly, but they charged between Tk 5,000 and Tk 7,000. And the bike driver charged Tk 2,000 to Tk 3,000."

"People are taking girls with them, posing as wives, so we do not understand," Babu admitted, highlighting the deceit that permeates the operations.

Babu agreed that people occasionally take shelter in the homes of poor villagers in the absence of alternative lodging. In such cases, they pay a meagre rent of Tk 500 for a night.

On the other side of the border in India, similar living facilities are available in Haridaspur and Juapur villages, he said.

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Bombaypara in Narail:  a sex trafficking hotspot

Two hours away from Jhenaidah's Indo-Bangla border, the district of Narail has gained a notoriety for being one of the biggest sources of girls headed for Mumbai.

The district's hot pockets include Jamrildanga, Badamtola, Khararia, Bhogra, and Tularampur.

This deeply concerning situation has even led to the designation of an entire area within the Narail district as "Bombaypara."

During an on-site investigation, locals said that over the years, a considerable number of girls and women from these areas have left their homes with aspirations of working as domestic help in Bombay [now Mumbai], India.

Abdur Rahman, a resident of Jamrildanga in Narail, said it is common for these girls to return home after a span of one or two years.

"During their return, these girls often take one or two girls with them to Bombay for employment. This practice has created a sense of unity and mutual support among the villagers, prompting them to affectionately refer to the locality as Bombaypara," he said.

The Daily Star found a woman named Mohona, who was in the midst of preparations to embark on a journey to Mumbai, leaving her two children under the care of her husband.

"I got a job offer from two women in Khararia village. They assured me of my success and good earnings," she said in May.

Pakhi, the sex worker in Pune, said one of the most popular Bangladeshi brothel managers runs around 25 brothels, housing as many as 100 Bangladeshi girls. Most of them are from Shingsholpur area of Narail.

THE MONEY TRAIL IN INDIA

"Earlier, we used to see that the traffickers or their partners would bring the survivors right from the village to the destination," said a source in Mumbai, who has been aiding law enforcers in conducting raids, searches, and rescue operations since 2006.

The person, requesting anonymity, said, "Now, they bring the girls to the Bangladesh border, cross the border at night in areas with less vigilance, and then they either bring them to the destination or keep them in some villages around the border till the deal is finalised. So, there are multiple people at different stages -- multiple buyers and multiple sellers."

According to the source, these deals are all settled by cash payment.

"We witnessed girls aged between 11 and 14 years old being trafficked from Bangladesh, and the proportion is not less than 30 percent," the person told The Daily Star.

SM Azharul Islam, a programme manager of Rights Jashore, said the tactic these days is to force the trafficked girl to marry a Bangalee man to ensure legal stay in India.

"Once the marriage is completed, the girl is handed over to a brothel or a flat and forced to do sex work," explained Azhar, who has been rescuing trafficked girls for over a decade.

Azhar said the person who first convinces a girl to travel to India receives Tk 15,000.

At the border, syndicate members receive and guide the girls, using motorbikes to navigate the treacherous path.

"The transport worker responsible for carrying the girl to the border receives Tk 10,000. Then the person who receives and shelters the girl gets between Tk 10,000 and 15,000," he said.

The houses on the border that shelter the girl, receive Tk 3,000 for the service, he said, adding, "The girl needs to stay in the house until the border is 'green' for the illegal crossing."

The carrier nowadays charges Tk 15,000-20,000 for taking the girl to India often under the nose of the security forces, said Azhar, the NGO worker.

"Similarly, the host on the Indian side receives Tk 10,000-15,000 for keeping and transporting the girl to rail stations for the journey to Mumbai," he said.

Azharul further said the transport worker in the rail service receives Tk 7,000 for taking the girl to Mumbai and providing security.

"Finally, the person who receives the girl in Mumbai and sells her to the brothel gets around Tk 3 lakh," Azhar added.

According to the source in Mumbai, some Bangladeshi people are now living in Pune and different districts of Maharashtra as Indians, and a section of them was found involved with trafficking rackets along with the Indian traffickers.

"For setting up a brothel, the pimp first rents a house, and appoints Bangladeshis as managers to convince the girls," the source told The Daily Star.

"We are now witnessing that the brothels are run in apartments in Maharashtra."

These pimps manage the local administration by paying bribes, locally called hafta.

"There are separate people for showing girls' pictures to customers, collecting the rent, providing security, managing the police, and transporting the girls to customers," the source explained.

"The monthly payment [bribe] is around 50,000 rupees. A share of the money also goes to the pockets of local political leaders," the source alleged.

In exchange for the payment, police often work as associates of the brothel managers, he said.

"We have multiple cases where we found that the victim managed to flee from the brothel and tried to get help from local police. But the police instead of extending support informed the brothel managers and then handed over the girls to the brothel again."

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No coming home

After rescuing trafficking victims, the Indian police do not take them to shelter centre; they file cases under criminal laws.

In 2017, a Bangladeshi girl Sumona (pseudonym) who was trafficked to Delhi and then to Agra was found with a customer during a police raid.

Instead of protecting her, Uttar Pradesh police filed a case against her and she was sent to jail. The jailor found out that she was a trafficking survivor and sent her to a government shelter. The superintendent of the shelter, filed another case against her for entering the country without valid documents.

According to the case statement filed with Dakshinkhan Police Station, she was trafficked on May 2, 2017.

About two weeks later, on May 20, the Agra City Police raided a brothel located in a private establishment, and arrested Sumona and four others.

According to the case documents, Sumona was discovered in a room with a customer.

Despite her status as a victim of human trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation, the First Information Report (FIR) was filed against her and the others under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956, as well as under the Indian Penal Code, 1860, with Sikandra Police Station in Agra, Uttar Pradesh.

Police brought charges against Sumona that she did an obscene act in a public place.

The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act refers to punishment for keeping a brothel or allowing premises to be used as a brothel, living on the earnings of prostitution, procuring, inducing, or taking a person for the sake of prostitution, and detaining a person in premises where prostitution is carried on.

The legislation aims to prevent trafficking, but its provisions have been used to conduct raids and search operations, detain women and place them in shelter homes.

Tragically, Sumona, treated as an accused, was presented before the Magistrate of the Agra Court and was remanded to Agra District Jail. Although she was granted bail on June 5, 2017, she remained incarcerated.

In response to this injustice, a Writ Petition was filed before the High Court of Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, on December 10, 2018, challenging her unlawful detention by the State.

However, on March 17, 2021, the case was disposed of without issuing any favourable orders.

On June 10, 2017, Sumona was transferred to a Protective Home operated by the government of Uttar Pradesh in Agra.

It is worth noting that due to the severe trauma resulting from continuous sexual violence, she was unable to reveal her true identity and provided an unverified address from West Bengal, India.

Subsequently, on July 10, 2018, while undergoing counselling at the Protective Home, Sumona confided in Superintendent Urmila Gupta, disclosing her actual status as a Bangladeshi national. She shared her complete address and the harrowing story of her trafficking from Bangladesh, as well as her ordeal of enduring forced sexual exploitation at multiple locations.

The superintendent of the Protective Home failed to report these critical facts and the atrocities committed against Sumona to the Court and Investigating Officer at Sikandra Police Station, and failed to initiate her repatriation process in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Governments of India and Bangladesh.

The superintendent also disregarded all pertinent legal procedures and proceeded to file a second FIR with Etmadaula Police Station in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, on August 4, 2019, against Sumona under the Foreigners Act, 1946, for illegal entry and stay in India.

As a result, Sumona once again appeared before the Magistrate of Agra Court and was remanded to Agra District Jail, where she has remained detained since.

Sumona appealed for bail before the Sessions Court of Agra, but her plea was denied on December 4, 2019. Charge sheets have been submitted by investigative officers before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Agra, in both cases. 

On April 5, 2023, an application for bail was submitted before the High Court of Allahabad.

The Court acknowledged that Sumona had presented a valid case for bail, and her application was granted on May 9, 2023.

The High Court of Allahabad did not impose any restrictions on Sumona that would prevent her from returning home through the established formal repatriation process.

The Agra Court released her on September 26 in the custody of a man who is originally her trafficker but posed as her relative living in India.

After the repatriation process failed, she entered Bangladesh illegally with the help of her trafficker on November 8, Mohammed Tariqul Islam, Country Director of Justice and Care, an NGO that supports trafficking victims, told The Daily Star yesterday. 

Between March 2017 and October 2023, the NGO rescued around 800 women and children aged 14 to 35 in India and brought them back to Bangladesh, he said.

"So far, we have provided legal assistance in about 350 trafficking cases in different courts in Bangladesh. Out of these, 100 have been disposed of, and in seven cases, convictions were secured. Notably, all the convicted individuals were recruiters," he told The Daily Star yesterday.

CRIMINALISING THE VICTIMS

Meanwhile, sex workers' collectives in India condemn these raids and rescue operations, saying that instead of combating trafficking, it creates scopes for arresting sex workers without due process and detaining them in shelter homes where they face more abuse and violence.

A 2018 report by organisations and collectives associated with the National Network of Sex Workers, which tracked down 243 women who were picked up and detained in parts of Maharashtra between 2005 and 2017, found that almost 80 percent had not wanted to be "rescued".

Sex workers collectives have criticised the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act ITPA stating that it criminalises their work, their families and their right to have children. Another criticism is that the act invalidates adult consent and has created provisions for unfair and forced evictions.

In the administrative office of a shelter home in Mumbai, a staff member rushed in with a paper and said, "Look at the new order!" to another staff member.

The paper was a copy of a magistrate's order saying that seven women who were detained in a raid under the ITPA be detained for a year in a shelter home. What was surprising for the shelter home staff was that this order was passed without a report from the probation officer.

"Of the seven women who were detained, only one was a case of kidnapping and trafficking," the staff member told The Daily Star.

"The family members of the other six were present in the court yet they were not released. Now they will have to stay in a shelter home for a year, with no income. A lot of these women have children and throughout the stay they will be worried about them and will not participate in the activities in the shelter home."

To be able to leave earlier, the women will have to file an appeal which would take months and at least Rs 60,000. "They will end up taking debts and then having to work more to pay it back," said the staff member.

When it comes to Bangladeshi women, the situation gets more complicated. As many women enter India illegally, they are also vulnerable to being charged under the Foreigners Act. Many trafficking survivors who are now working as sex workers and are settled in India have got Aadhaar cards or other Indian identification documents, some real, some fake.

"Trafficking is a serious concern," said Tejaswi Sevekari, facilitator of Saheli, the only sex workers collective in Pune.

"But the sad part is that no one is addressing the issues of the safety of women and girls during the transit, be it in Bangladesh or in India. And once she has landed in the red light area or a brothel, rescuing her after a few years makes no sense. The border safety needs to be addressed properly. A woman's current status needs to be considered during the rescue operation. Most of the time, it happens without her consent."

Even those who want to be willingly repatriated face long delays. "Khushi," who came to the shelter home when she was 19, has been there for almost three years now.

"When we have to send a Nepali girl back, the process is very easy and quick," said Triveni Acharya, co-founder of Rescue Foundation, an NGO that runs shelter homes and aids police in rescue operations.

"But for Bangladeshi girls, the process is long-drawn and complicated," Triveni noted.

This delays repatriation and forces survivors to stay in shelter homes for long durations.

INDIAN IDS WITH FAKE DOCUMENTS

The Pune police declined to make any official comments.

But a senior officer with the Anti-Human Trafficking Cell of the Pune police said, "There are 110 brothels in the red light area of Budhwar Peth, which is located in the heart of the city. There are around 800 to 900 women commercial sex workers (CSWs) in these brothels."

Requesting anonymity, the officer added, "The CSWs belonged to Nepal, Karnataka, and Bangladesh. The majority of them have Aadhaar Cards and PAN [Permanent Account Number] cards."

Explaining how women are trafficked in India, the officer said, "All the women from Bangladesh have crossed the Indo-Bangla border illegally with the help of pimps. The border is very porous. The women are then kept in different lodges or hotels in Kolkata by the agents for a few days. During these days, their PAN cards and Aadhaar cards are prepared by submission of fake and fabricated documents."

"The agents generally lure the women from poor families based in Dhaka, Khulna, and other places with good and respected jobs in Delhi and Mumbai. These women are uneducated or school dropouts," he said.

"After their brief stay in Kolkata, the women are then handed over to other agents who take these women to Pune or Mumbai in the express trains. The agents generally use fake identities while communicating with the women on the express trains. The women, during their journey, are not allowed to speak with anyone else," he said.

"Once the trains reach Pune railway station, the agents hand over these women to the brothel keepers. These women are bought by the brothel keepers for a very trivial amount ranging between Rs 8000 to Rs 20,000," the officer said.

For official comments, an RTI was also filed with Pune, Mumbai, and Maharashtra police, but none of them responded to our questions about the trafficking rackets. Mumbai police only said they rescued one Bangladeshi survivor in 2022 and 2023, but no one in previous years.

Triveni Acharya, one of the founders of the rescue foundation, said they rescue around 500 girls yearly, and 20 percent of them are Bangladeshi. Even there are so many Bangladeshi "guru-ma" (brothel managers) in the brothels in Mumbai, she said.

"These girls were actually taught by the traffickers to give identity as Indian to avoid legal complications of illegal entry," Triveni added.