CHENNAI: Now in police net, a notorious pimp Sona Lakshmi has claimed that girls working in the IT industry, who moonlighted as call girls, were the most sought after ones among her rich clients from the business community in various cities across the country.
During the course of interrogation, Sona told police that she provided girls to her nearly 600 regular patrons, based on their individual fancies and tastes. Of this, ‘IT girls’ topped the list. However, Sona denied pimping for film actresses and said dealing with them did not ensure high profit margins.
Moreover, she would have to put up with their tantrums.
Sona operated across the country, but her clientele in Kolkata was the highest, said a police official. Chennai stood second. She operated out of posh apartments in the city. At the time of her arrest, Sona used two flats one in Kilpauk and the other in Kodungaiyur - to deal with her clients. Police, while arresting five of her associates, also ‘rescued’ three girls from Kolkata and New Delhi from her custody.
Sona had two cars and she changed the drivers frequently.
Moreover, the driver was not told about the destination till the last moment. However, on Monday afternoon, a suburban Central Crime Branch (CCB) team managed to arrest her.
Her car was intercepted on GST Road by a team led by ACP Jeyakumar. They had been following the movements of Sona, hailing from Vijayawada, for almost three months. The 55- year-old had managed to escape from the police at least twice in the past.
Sona has been in the business for more than 30 years now. She carried eight cell phones with a different client list on each. For her Chennai clients, Sona brought in girls from Kolkata and Mumbai as local girls demanded bigger payments. She is said to pay a monthly salary of Rs 45,000 to girls, who came from the IT industry and took up the trade on a part-time basis. Expenses for these girls were very high, as they demanded expensive food for dinner and would not compromise on anything lesser than they asked for, she reportedly told police.
For clients fascinated by actresses, Sona offered lookalikes, who came in for much cheaper rates than the real celebrities.
She rotated the girls to ensure a constant flow of new faces in co-ordination with other brokers in different cities.
She was arrested in 2002 and 2004, but escaped a sentence on ‘health reasons.’