TLN Staff
Hyderabad: The covid pandemic has made the flesh trade even more lucrative as organizers are charging extra for services and requesting the customer to arrange a place, since hotels are shut. Officials of the special operation teams shared that victims from Bihar and West Bengal are brought to city with a false promise of jobs and are later pushed into prostitution. Their families are given an advance payment with a job assurance.
Explaining the process, Naveen Kumar, Inspector of Malkajgiri Special Operations Team, Rachakonda Police, said that they approach the families directly and claim that they have employment opportunities in Hyderabad. “They target vulnerable families who are in need of money and sweet talk them into sending their daughters or sisters to Hyderabad for jobs. They even make an advance payment before getting them in the city to assure them. Once in the city, the victims are told that due to Coronavirus, the job market is weak and it will take time to get enrolled in a company and then push them into the flesh trade,” said the official.
The Special Operations Team of Cyberabad had cracked down prostitution racket last week at Madhapur’s Ayyappa Society. Three women were rescued from the site and an inquiry revealed that the captured women were natives of neighbouring states who were secretly pushed into the trade.
Speaking further on how the business is being conducted actively even during lockdown, sources from Rachakonda police said that the prices for these ‘services’ are jacked up due to the risk of police vigilance. “The organisers ask their customers to arrange a place themselves as the hotel and lodging businesses are shut. Accordingly, the people set up either their house or their friend’s and after a time and date is set online through WhatsApp, the victim will be taken to the said places. They charge an extra amount during pandemic citing the risk they take as a reason,” said the source.
A similar incident from Yapral in Hyderabad was reported by the Rachakonda police, where an inter-state gang had been operating. The arrested perpetrators running the racket were identified as Sukesh Ravan, Ranjish Rajan and Mithilesh Sharma. Two of the Hyderabadi customers, P Saikiran and Mohammad Siraj, were also arrested at the site.
The other aspect which misses the eye in this issue is that the victims are very vulnerable to danger, said an official from Women Cell of Telangana Police. “The girl is dropped off to the place by the men and her safety is at risk. She can be mauled, assaulted against her wish and even get killed and the incident will obviously be hushed down as they cannot report it without revealing the whole story” she said.
Adding to it, city police officials say that owners of the phone numbers used by organisers are often dead as the SIM cards were purchased with fake identity cards. Once contacted, the agent either sends photos of the girl through Whatsapp or gives URLs of blogs containing the photographs, police officials said.
