Maharashtra women's commission chairperson and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Rupali Chakankar. (File Photo)Chairperson of Maharashtra Women’s Commission Rupali Chakankar on Thursday made serious allegations of human trafficking against Pranjal Khewalkar, son-in-law of NCP (S-P) leader Eknath Khadse, who has already been arrested in the alleged ‘drugs party’ case.While Chakankar urged Pune police to carry out a comprehensive probe and a file case against Khewalkar, Commissioner of Pune Police Amitesh Kumar said they have already sent a detailed report to the women’s commission.Addressing a press conference in Pune on Thursday, Chakankar accused Khewalkar of luring migrant women to Pune on the pretext of providing them jobs and then forcing them to do ‘wrong things.’“The commission had earlier asked the Pune police to investigate the matter. We have received the report, which is absolutely shocking. After the police raided the Kharadi house, they had taken Khewalkar and his associates into custody and seized 10 moibles phones, hookah pot and drugs. From the cellphone seized from Hadapsar house of Khewalkar, police found nude photos of some women in hidden folders,” said Chakankar.“Khewalkar had called some women to Lonavala and other places on the promise of giving them work in a flim. The police investigation has revealed that besides Lonavala, the women were asked come to Jalgaon, Sakinaka and Goa. These women have been sexually exploited. There is a possibility of human trafficking,” said the chairperson of the state women’s panel.“In the hidden folder of one of the mobiles seized, there were several objectionable photos and videos. The women were stripped and drugged before their objectionable photos were taken, which were later used to blackmail them. Infact, Khewalkar himself can be seen in the videos,” she said.“The police also found videos and photos of women who work as househelps or sweepers. A man named ‘Aarush’ was tasked with the job of luring women. It is a case of human trafficking and exploitation of women,” said Chakankar.Story continues below this ad“I have urged the state government to set up an Special Investigation Team. It is important that a thorough investigation be done on how the women were brought and how they were exploited. This is a big organised racket,” she said.Meanwhile, Khewalkar’s wife Rohini Khadse, who is also the Maharashtra women’s wing chief of the NCP (SP), alleged that Chakankar was indulging in a pre-scripted drama, which reveals as if the outcome was already decided.Khadse said the Sanvi Multipurpose Charitable Trust had lodged the complaint with the commission in this matter. “The trust is headed by a NCP women wing leader..Where was the trust when Vaishnavi Hagawane ended her life because of the atrocities by her in-laws?”Reacting to Chakankar’s charges, former minister and NCP (SP) leader Eknath Khadse said, “The allegations seem as if Chakankar herself is the investigating officer who has conducted the probe. Chakankar is a member of a political party. The police, and not her, should provide all such information.”Story continues below this ad“Chakankar and Rohini Khadse have bitter relations and it seems because of it, she is taking it out on my daughter. She should speak the truth,” said Eknath Khadse.“I would like to state that I would not side with my son-in-law. My only demand is that police should continue its investigation. It should not be given to SIT. It can be given to CBI if there is any grain of truth. If my son-in-law is involved, then hang him. But they should not resort to defamation without any concrete proof. This case is about drugs. The police have told the court that it was not a rave party. The police said he had not taken drugs…The police should place the truth before the people,” said the senior politician.When contacted, Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar said, “We have already sent the investigation report to the commission. It was done as per the commission’s directives. I would not like to reveal the details of the report.”Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read MoreClick here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:Eknath Khadse