Man jailed for forcing Indian woman into prostitution

Manama : The High Criminal Court sentenced an Asian man to 10 years imprisonment, followed by departure, for trafficking a woman. The defendant is not in police custody. 

He reportedly forced an Indian woman into prostitution after she was brought here with the promise of a job.

According to court files, the woman was cheated in her country by one of her friends, who pledged to secure her a job in a saloon in Bahrain for a price of INR 50,000 (almost BD400). 

However when she arrived in Bahrain, the defendant reveled to her that she will have to sell her body for money.

“I worked very hard in India to collect the amount (INR 50,000) thinking that I was going to have a job. When I landed in Bahrain, I was received by him (the defendant) and a driver. He took my passport, and I lived in an apartment with another woman for three days,” the woman recounted her agony before prosecutors. 

“Then I was taken to another apartment, near one of the hotels. I begged him to let me go because I was a married woman. But he threatened to lock me up, so I had to obey his order,” she revealed. “He stole several gold items I had in my possession as well my Samsung mobile phone.” 

The woman added that she was denied food and water whenever she refused to have sex with customers. 

She eventually fled after she got the key of the apartment, where she was held captive, while the defendant was inside the toilet. She went to a police station with the help of the first person she met after escaping and filed a complaint.