Cyberabad Police bust prostitution racket in Hyderabad, arrest 17

HYDERABAD: The anti-human trafficking unit of the Cyberabad Police on Tuesday busted an organised prostitution racket in Hyderabad and arrested 17 persons in connection with it.

According to the Cyberabad police, the accused were bringing women from various parts of India and abroad, posting advertisements on websites, contacting customers via call centres and WhatsApp, assisting customers in delivering victims and engaging in prostitution in various hotels, Oyo rooms besides collecting money for this organised prostitution.

The 17 accused were involved in 39 cases, controlled 14,190 women and even used MMDA drugs in their prostitution ring. The victims are from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Assam, Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Russia, among other places.

The victims are primarily from West Bengal, Karnataka, and Maharashtra, with the remainder coming from Delhi and other states and countries. Many victims were enticed into this profession with promises of a luxurious lifestyle, quick money and, in some cases, jobs.

The accused ran call centres out of Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad while using websites like Locanto, Skokka, Hyderabad escorts, Callgirls in Hyderabad, Luxury escort services, my heaven models, Natasha Roy, etc. They used WhatsApp as their primary mode of communication and each WhatsApp group had about 300 organisers.

During the interrogation and confession, it was found that many victims from different states had formed subject-specific WhatsApp groups, such as organisers, suppliers, ad makers, websites and call centre workers.

The broker would approach the victim, in accordance with the accused's strategy, and post her images to the event organisers' WhatsApp groups. The organisers would select the profile (the victim's images) and reserve hotel and travel arrangements for the victims. The victims would then arrive and check into hotels. Later, the broker would post images of the victims on call girl websites.

Customers who see these advertisements would call or WhatsApp the number, and the call centre staff would engage the customer on the phone by providing details and directing them to the hotel, after which they would inform the organiser about the customer and share his phone number with the organiser. He then directs them to the victim's hotel room for service after calling the victim and the client to a meeting.

According to the police, the clients would pay with cash, phone pay, Google pay, or Paytm, among other methods. The organiser would pay 30% to the victim, 35% to advertisements and call centre personnel, and 35 percent to organizers. If they get clients without advertising, they will only pay 30 percent to the victim and 70% to the organizers.

The police said that the accused also engaged in commission-based prostitution, a practise that is widespread in this industry. The organisers would hire a victim and share images of her on WhatsApp groups for the organisers. If the organizers' former clients get in touch with the victims, the victims would pay commission to the organizers.

Cyberabad police arrested five organisers and gathered important lists of victims from all over India, suppliers of victims from all over India, ad makers and posting agents list, call centres and website owners list, fake SIM list and fake Aadhar list.

According to the police, the majority of those arrested were responsible for 70 percent of the trafficking and prostitution cases in the Cyberabad and Hyderabad Commissionerates. The accused had been arrested with 34 smartphones and one keypad phone, three cars, one laptop, and 2.5 grams of MDMA.

The Cyberabad Police has once again appealed young girls and innocent victims not to be persuaded by prostitution and human trafficking, as well as not to consider these options if they want to make quick money. Some of the agents send the underprivileged girls to be prostitutes after luring them with jobs promises.

Cyberabad police had also asked citizens to report any illegal activities by dialling 100 or sending a message to WhatsApp number 9490617444.