COIMBATORE: Following the arrest of three men from Kerala, who were arrested for trafficking young women and selling them for sex, the Peelamedu police arrested two more people, both women, and rescued two other women from a sex trafficking ring on Thursday evening.
Police said, they had gotten the phone numbers of the pimps from the Internet. A few sites had been listing prostitutes in the city. The police team had called the trafficker and had arranged for the women to be brought to a location near the CODISSIA complex in Peelamedu.
A special team of police, known as the anti-vice squad, laid a trap and arrested the two accused after making sure that the trafficked women were inside the car in which the two accused had reached the location. The police arrested S Samundeeswari, 28, and R Poongothai, 42, from Erode district, and rescued three women, from Erode, Tirupur and Mumbai. The rescued women were sent to a shelter, while the two accused were booked under various Sections of the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act. The police also seized a car as well as four mobile phones and Rs 1,200 in cash from them.
In a similar incident on Wednesday, police arrested three men from Kerala, who had listed their mobile numbers on a similar website. The police said, a majority of the numbers were active and that efforts were being undertaken to shut down such trafficking rings.
The police were unsure as to whether the rescued women were forced into the trade, or had become sex workers due to poverty.