Thane: The police have arrested a 44-year-old woman for allegedly kidnapping a newborn girl around 16 years ago and later pushing her into flesh trade.  

The anti-human trafficking cell of the district's rural police on Sunday evening carried out a raid at a house in the district's Mira Road area where they found the girl along with two men in a room, Kashimira police station's senior inspector Vilas Sanap said.  

The woman, who was also present in the house, was nabbed.   The police officer said during questioning, the woman revealed that she had kidnapped the girl from a hospital in Mumbai where she was born, around 16 years ago.  

The woman then took the girl to Mira Road area and told her neighbours that she was her daughter, he said.   She then sent the girl to school for some time and later pushed her into prostitution, Sanap said.  

The woman was arrested on Sunday night and booked under IPC sections 363 (kidnapping), 365 (kidnapping or abducting with an intent to secretly and wrongfully confine a person, 366-A (procuration of minor girl), 370 (buying or disposing of any person as a slave), 372 (selling minor for purpose of prostitution, 373 (buying minor for purpose of prostitution), he said.   The girl was sent to a rehabilitation centre in Thane, police added. PTI