Minor girl in Mumbai’s Mankhurd files complaint against relatives charging them of forced prostitution, assault; police arrests five

Mumbai: Five persons, including the mother, brother and “husband”, of a teenage girl have been arrested on charges of forcing her into prostitution and rape, police said on Sunday. According to a police official, the girl’s mother forcibly married her off to a man in April 2018 though she was a minor, a Mankhurd police official said. [caption id=“attachment_6757331” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] He said her husband used to beat her up for sexual favours, following which she returned to her mother’s residence in in Mankhurd in east Mumbai. “After few months, her mother took her to a pimp who forced her into prostitution,” the official said quoting the complaint lodged by the girl on Saturday night. According to the complainant, she was forced to have physical relations with a 60-year-old man for money, the official said, adding that the husband of the pimp also sexually assaulted her. The girl claimed that when she sought help from her brother, he raped her and threatened to kill her with a sword. A case has been registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for rape and unnatural offences, Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act (PITA) and Child Marriage Prevention Act. Police are now looking for the 60-year-old man.