KOCHI: In Kochi, the business capital of the state, the war between flesh trade rackets to supply foreign women to their clients is hotting up.
With the rise in demand for the white skin, pimps in the state have started to bring girls from Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to the city.
According to the police, high demand from cash-rich clientele in the state is forcing the pimps to enter into a tie-up with established rackets in Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai to supply foreign women.
Above all, tight competition has forced the agents to reduce the rate considerably, bringing it down to around Rs.5,000 from Rs. 20,000.
Russian sex workers have allegedly started charging lower rates to keep their cash drawer ringing. The favourite locations for clientele are hill stations and other tourist destinations in the state.
“It is from Bangalore that the rackets mainly source foreign women. They are brought as tourists to the city. Russian tourists have no restrictions in moving around compared to the tourists from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Interrogation of many agents has revealed that Bangalore is the major supply chain point,” Kochi City Police Commissioner Manoj Abraham said.
Special Branch Assistant Commissioner M Shamsu Illikkal, who is in charge of the Foreigners Registration Office, said there were high chances that a considerable number of foreign prostitutes arrive in the city under the guise of tourists.
“Tourists inflow to the city is quite high. We receive around 600 to 700 C-forms a day from tourists. It is difficult to identify ‘genuine tourists’ from these C-forms. But, certain inputs suggest that foreign prostitutes are being brought to the city. It is a sensitive issue as they arrive as tourists,” he said and added that the recent incident at a resort in Kothamangalam where two Russian women were found along with a businessman was a strong indicator to the operation of the racket.
The presence of the Russian women came to light as the boat in which the duo went for boating along with the businessman capsized. The businessman drowned but the Russians swam to safety.
The Russians were identified as Nadza (24) and Nadalia (27), from St Petersburg.
The existence of foreign prostitution rackets was confirmed in India after the Delhi Police recently arrested five foreign women, including a pimp.
The police had revealed that the arrested, who are in their twenties, had come to India on tourist visas and were indulging in immoral trafficking.