Police have busted a flesh trade racket operating in Maharashtra's Thane city and rescued three women, an official said on Sunday.

One of the rescued women, aged 22 and hailing from West Bengal, told the police that she was compelled to take up prostitution to pay for the medical treatment of her father who was suffering from tuberculosis, said senior police inspector Mahesh Patil from the anti-human trafficking cell.

Based on a tip-off, the police laid a trap on Friday evening by sending a decoy customer near a restaurant in Wagle Estate area here.?

They arrested a woman who was allegedly running the prostitution racket, the official said.

The police also rescued three women - two aged 20 and 22 belonging to West Bengal and one 18-year-old native of Samastipur in Bihar, the official said.

The accused woman used to charge Rs 20,000 per customer and pay Rs 3,000 out of it to the victims, he said.

The accused and the victims worked as bar dancers in Dombivli township here, but as the money earned from it was insufficient, they had taken up flesh trade, the official said.

The rescued women were sent to a shelter home.

The Srinagar police here registered a case against the accused under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, the official added.

(Inputs from PTI)