Bride-for-sale racket busted in Surat

Cops have busted a gang that sold girls of marriageable age to prospective grooms. In a raid at a house in Puna village on Saturday, cops unearthed the gang that confessed to selling eight such girls so far.

Rama Tayde, 26, a resident of Yaval road in Maharastra eloped with her lover Amarnath Bhardawaj, a resident of the same city.

Amarnath took Rama to one Shoba Tanna’s house located at Parekh nagar in Puna-gam. At Tanna’s home, Rama found another girl, by the name of Pooja Jedia, who too had eloped to Surat with her ‘lover’ Prakash alias Bhanja Ingle.

On Saturday afternoon, four people including a woman visited Tanna’s house, when Rama and Pooja were asked to serve tea and snacks to the guests by Tanna.

While preparing tea, Rama learnt that their ‘lovers’ Amarnath, Prakash and the owner of the house Tanna are planning to sell them off to families, whose sons were unable to marry, owing to lack of girls in the same community.

An alarmed Rama then informed Pooja and after the duo overheard Tanna negotiating their price, the duo rushed to Puna police and narrated their tale to the cops. Stunned by the revelation, cops raided Tanna’s house and arrested four people including Tanna for operating the racket.

Police found that Tanna, the master-mind of the racket used to sell girls who eloped with their ‘boy friends’. On the pretext of giving them shelter, she earned money by selling the girls to prospective buyers. She confessed to selling off eight girls till now to various persons.