Kashimira cops find secret cell with automated door used to hide bar girls

To hoodwink police personnel, some notorious bar owners in the Mira RoadKashimira belt have devised new techniques to hide female dancers and waitresses using innovative means.

A seemingly routine raid at Hotel Sea Magic, a ladies service orchestra bar in Kashimira, turned into a massive search operation for a team from the Thane (rural) police led by Assistant SP Atul Kulkarni on Thursday night.

Acting on a tip-off about vulgar dance performances being held under the guise of live orchestra shows, the police team raided the bar at around 11:30 pm on Thursday.

The team rescued six girls who were being forced into the raunchy act. Suspecting something amiss, the team spent hours examining every inch of the bar, and realised that one of the steel shelves in the bar-pantry was mounted on a portion of the wall that was actually a cement door that could lead to a secret chamber, for the girls to hide in case of police raids.

Interestingly, the automated door had a specially designed locking system attached to the electrical circuit board. The police rescued three more girls who were found to be squeezed in utmost inhuman conditions inside the secret compartment that had been specially created to serve as a hideout.

Apart from slapping relevant sections of the Maharashtra Prohibition of Obscene Dance in Hotels, Restaurants and Bar Rooms and Protection of Dignity of Women Act,2016, the police have also imposed section 308 (culpable homicide) of the IPC against the owner, operator, manager and cashier of the establishment. Further investigations were on.