HYDERABAD: The Cyberabad police have apprehended seven more persons for procuring women from different places in India and forcing them into the flesh trade as part of a continuing crackdown on immoral trafficking.
The Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) made the arrests. The accused, after procuring women, used to post ads on websites, contact customers through call centres and WhatsApp and facilitate the meeting between the girls and the customers in different hotels.
The seven persons arrested are wanted in three cases. The number of women forced into prostitution was 850 who have since been rescued. The victims were from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal, and Mumbai. Ads used to be posted on Locanto and call centres were operated from Hyderabad. The main mode of operation was through WhatsApp.
The modus operandi was to contact the regular customers and facilitate the meeting between the women and the customers. The accused would send pictures of the women to the customers on WhatsApp and then invite them to a place where the girls would be made available.
Of the seven accused, one is an MBA graduate. His name is Vinay Kumar who organises prostitution in Madhapur. He came to Hyderabad in 2007 and worked in different private companies before settling down in the flesh trade.
Leads found from contacts list
The police, after arresting Vinay Kumar, found leads from his contacts’ list. The other accused in the case are: Chintada Laxminarayana, Patamalla Satyanarayana, Kota Ramaraju, Dundi Devi, Pallavi Swathi Sandhya, Gali Lavanya Reddy, Shyamala Lavanya, Kota Bhagyalaxmi, Kota Sithara, Ch Laxmi and Nimmala Sivakumar Reddy. According to police, all the accused were well-known organisers and were wanted under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act.