Mizo Girls Trafficked With Promises of Jobs at Beauty Parlour

Panaji, Oct 11 : The three girls from Mizoram, who were rescued by the Crime branch team on Saturday, have revealed to the police that they were being asked to do sexual favours for customers at the beauty parlour in Porvorim and when they refused they were beaten up by the owner.

The three girls, one of them a minor, were trafficked into Goa with a promise to work in Lotus beauty parlour.

"They are school drop-outs and were contacted by a local lady, who informed them that there is job for girls to work in beauty parlour in Goa. Though they are not trained beauticians, they were told that they will be given training in Goa," said sources.

They arrived in Goa less than a month back. "At first things were okay. But later, they were forced to given in to the sexual favours sought by customers. The customers, mostly male tourists, would ask for a complete body massage and pay ` 7,000 at the counter.

They were then taken to a small cabin where the girls were asked to massage the naked men for almost two hours. They had to also give in to the sexual favours sought by the customers. If they refused and the customers complained, then the girls were beaten up," the girls have revealed in their statement to the police.

The girls told the police that they were again beaten on October 2, and its then that the three of them got together and planned to escape.

Accordingly on October 4 they got an opportunity to escape when they were being taken from the parlour to the flat in which they were lodged in Porvorim. They then contacted their relatives in Mizoram and spilled the beans.

A police complaint was lodged in Mizoram and the Mizoram police along with a local NGO contacted Goa based NGO ARZ with detailed information and FIR copy. ARZ on Saturday submitted the same to the police, who raided the beauty parlour premises and rescued 11 girls who were trafficked into Goa to work in the parlour.

Police have arrested Shanta alias Laxmi Mishra, the owner of the parlour, along with four men for trafficking the girls to Goa for prostitution. They have been remanded to 7 days police custody. Another three of Mishra`s associates have been arrested by Mizoram police in a raid on Saturday.

Incidentally, after going through the documents, police learnt that though Mishra ran a massage parlour in the beauty salon, she had permission only to run a beauty parlour and haircutting salon under the Shops and Establishments Act, said sources. Police are now investigating whether the girls were being taken out in the coastal belt for prostitution.