THE MEERUT police have arrested a 65-year-old man, who retired as a class I officer at the Life Insurance Corporation, for allegedly physically exploiting at least six girls, including three minors, at his residence in Jagrati Vihar colony since October last year. Advertising District Magistrate Anil Dhingra has formed an inquiry committee that will probe if the case is linked to a larger flesh trade racket. The physical exploitation of the victims was confirmed after medical examination of three (one minor) of the total six and all of them recorded their statements in the presence of a Magistrate claiming that the arrested suspect Vimal Chand Kureel, also subjected them to “unnatural” sex during the period. The victims said he gave them money whenever they raised objection. Three FIRs were registered at Medical College police station. “We will cover the witness in this connection under the protection plan,” said Meerut SP Akhilesh Narain Singh. Advertising The SP said on a tip-off, the Crime Branch of the Meerut police police seized DVR details of 13 CCTV cameras installed at the suspect’s residence. “After going through the visual recordings (from November 2018 to March 2019), we formed a special team that went to his residence early Thursday morning and arrested him when he stepped out,” said the SP. He added thatKureel had hired one Ashu Kashyap (32), a camera technician, two months ago when the recording network of the system developed a snag. “While going through the stored CCTV footage, Ashu happened to find clips in which Vimal was seen with the girls and with an intention of blackmailing him, the CCTV technician copied the stored data to a pen drive. Since then, he had been demanding money from Vimal who gave him around Rs 80,000. When he refused to part with more money, Ashu gave the pen drive to a local Hindi daily and it later reached the police,” said Akhilesh. Ashu was also arrested. The two were produced in court Friday and sent to jail. The police has also taken into custody a 38-year-old woman, a domestic help of the arrested suspect, who had a key role in bringing girls, all belonging to poor families, to the suspect’s house with the promise of giving them domestic jobs and financial assistance. “We are interrogating the domestic help,” said Kailash Chand Gautam, in-charge of Medical college police station. The police said the suspect’s wife died four years ago.

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