Police busts prostitution, rescues over 14,000 girls

Cyberabad Police has busted a major prostitution racket with the arrest of 17 people on Tuesday. Police said that more than 14,000 victims have been rescued, including some foreign women. Cyberabad Police Commissioner Stephen Ravindra said the racket was being operated online from Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

Giving information, the police said that the accused used to procure women from different places across India, posting advertisements on websites, contacting customers through call centers and WhatsApp. Facilitating the customers to reach the victims in various hotels, OYO rooms and collecting money for this organized prostitution racket.

A total of 14,190 victims were involved in this prostitution. Fifty per cent of the victims were from West Bengal, 20 per cent from Karnataka and 15 per cent from Maharashtra, three per cent from countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Russia. The racket call centers were operated from Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad and the main mode of communication was WhatsApp groups. The accused have been booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 370 (buying or disposing of a person as a slave) and sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act at four police stations in Cyberabad. . Earlier, 40 cases were registered against 15 organizers in Cyberabad and Hyderabad Commissionerate and they were absconding in most of the cases.