NEW DELHI: The booming sex trafficking enterprise has quietly infiltrated social media platforms. Investigators reveal this after they were tipped off a network of traffickers and middlemen operating through Facebook and encrypted messaging services, including WhatsApp. According to sources, a complaint has been filed with the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe what appears to be the biggest and most sophisticated online sex trafficking ring spread across several states.
Sources said the explosive details and data forwarded to the agency include phone numbers and locations of traffickers and victims.
“The case began to turn into a big scandal last month, when we came across phone numbers and advertisements on social media. The ring even provides girls of a particular age on demand. Prima facie it appears that victims are mostly from the Northeast, Nepal and Jharkhand,” sources said.
The operational control of trafficking racket is suspected to be centred in Odisha, West Bengal, Nepal and Bihar, according to the details accessed by The Sunday Standard. The advertisements were posted using a server located somewhere in Odisha, and more than 100 SIM cards are used to communicate and set up deals for the girls as young as 14.
“Most of the SIM cards have been procured using fake identity and documentation. The user and subscriber name don’t match in majority of cases examined. The CBI probe perhaps would be able to penetrate the iron-framed veil used by the sex traffickers,” said the sources sharing several suspicious phone accounts, which they had recently examined.
The SIM card is used to communicate with potential customers and buyers through WhatsApp and encrypted chats on social media. The traffickers avoid using the numbers for voice call. Some numbers accessed by this newspaper revealed that they were registered in Buxar district of Bihar, Rajkot in Gujarat and even Haryana. In all three cases the subscribers and users did not match with the data available with the government agencies.
India is considered as a source, destination and transit country for men, women and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), 12,759 women were rescued by the law enforcement agencies in 2016. As per data, 3,222 women were rescued from Madhya Pradesh and just 87 from Delhi. West Bengal reportedly registered the maximum number of 3,579 cases of trafficking.
According to MHA, the majority of girls in prostitution are not there voluntarily but they are deceived or coerced and a strong stance is needed to prevent the trend of children entering the sex trade.
As per unofficial data, including surveys by the NGOs, over 15 million girls are victims of sex trafficking in India. A group of voluntary organisations in their report said in India, every eight minutes a girl goes missing. “India is home to nearly half the world’s 30 million slaves; 58 per cent of whom are trafficked for sexual exploitation. Their average age is just 12—some are as young as 5,” said Every8minutes.org.