The police on Wednesday arrested nine members of a gang allegedly involved in trafficking women from Bangladesh and forcing them into flesh trade in Madhya Pradesh's Indore, an official said.

The kingpin of the racket was carrying a reward of Rs 20,000 on his head, the official said.

According to the police, the gang has sent several women from Bangladesh to other parts of the country for flesh trade after getting them to cross the borders illegally.

The kingpin of the gang, Mamoon Hussain (41), was running the racket from Mumbai, superintendent of police (SP) Ashutosh Bagri said.

Mamoon arrived in India 25 years ago and had managed to get a ration card for himself using a fake identity, and subsequently got an Aadhaar card, voter ID and passport, the SP said.

The accused, with the help of his Bangladesh-based wife, allegedly lured orphaned, helpless and needy women with a promise of getting them work as domestic helps, by pretending to be associated with an NGO, he said.

In the last 10 years, Mamoon's gang had pushed thousands of women into flesh trade in different parts of the country by getting them to cross the Indo-Bangladesh border illegally, the official claimed.

Mamoon has links with middlemen of different cities and they used to send Bangladeshi women to Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and other states, he said.

Mamoon also married a woman in India and was evading investigating agencies with his fake identity of Vijay Dutt, Bagri said, adding that the accused used to send the money earned from flesh trade and human trafficking through hawala racket to Bangladesh.

Apart from Mamoon, the police have arrested eight others, including four women, the official said.