Bhopal Sex Racket Case: Main Accused Caught In Jammu & Kashmir

In a breakthrough in the Bhopal Sex Racket Case, Pyare Miya, the main accused has been arrested in Jammu and Kashmir with the help of local police. The Madhya Pradesh Police has reportedly reached there and will bring him to Bhopal soon. Miya had been absconding ever since several women, some of them minors, alleged rape against him. As per reports, four people, including two women working as his aides, who allegedly lured and shifted the girls from one place to another, have also been arrested.

What You Should Know

• The sex racket came to light when several girls on July 12 were found by a police patrolling team in an intoxicated state. When questioned, they revealed that they were hired as party dancers by Pyare Miya, a journalist.
• One girl alleged that she was raped at the said party by Pyare Miya. The remaining girls revealed that they had also been reportedly raped in the same flat by the accused on earlier occasions. Other survivors have also come out with such complaints since then.
• The police arrested Miya’s accomplices, although the main accused had been on the run ever since.
• Miya was arrested in Jammu and Kashmir today by the local police.
• Earlier in the day, Bhopal police claimed to have seized porn CDs, high-end cars, liquor bottles and bones of wild animals among other things during raids on the properties of the accused.

Also Read: Men like Shubham Mishra are made because they know women only draw a line at rape?

The Case So Far

The Madhya Pradesh Police on Tuesday, 14 July, had set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into the case. On the same day, a joint team of district administration, Bhopal municipal corporation (BMC) and police razed several buildings owned by the man in the city. According to administrative authorities, the buildings were allegedly built by him illegally on government land. The state government has also cancelled the accreditation of the accused, along with the allotment of a bungalow to him.

Earlier in the day, the police raided the flat where Miya took the girls and raped them. As per reports, the flat’s walls were covered with obscene pictures of women. As per the reports, the police found CDs of child pornography, bones of wild animals and more than 100 Indian made foreign liquor bottles. Police have reportedly found papers of illegally encroached government land at 12 different places worth crores of rupees.

Apart from the earlier case of rape under IPC and POSCO, the Excise Act and Wildlife Act have been invoked by the police as well, following the raid. Additionally, Sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act were also invoked as two of the survivors were found belonging to these communities.

Also Read: No Country For Women. Bihar gang rape survivor sent to jail for ‘misbehaviour’

Dyuti Gupta is an intern with SheThePeople.TV.