Thane:
In a gruesome incident, a 24-year-old woman was allegedly thrashed and her private parts were mutilated by three people in Thane's Bhiwandi town on March 19, allegedly because she resisted being part of a prostitution racket.
The woman is currently recovering at a hospital in the city. Out of the three accused, two men are still at large. The third, a 34-year-old brothel operator, was arrested on Saturday.
"The victim had been trafficked from Gujarat to the powerloom town (Bhiwandi) and was sold to the brothel," Police Inspector Rajan Saste of Kumbharwada-Bhiwandi city police station told PTI.
When she refused to follow the orders of the brothel operator, her private parts were mutilated, he said. According to the police, the woman was even branded and several of her teeth were broken by the accused.
She was rescued by some neighbours and was taken to IGM Hospital in Bhiwandi and was later shifted to Thane District Civil Hospital.
The police have said the woman is not in a position to speak due to mental trauma and torture.
The police have booked the trio under various sections of the IPC, including section 325 (punishment for voluntarily causing grievous hurt) and 370 (buying or disposing of any person as a slave).
The arrested brothel keeper was produced before the local magistrate, who remanded her into police custody till March 25, the police said.