Telangana police bust massive human trafficking racket that was run online

The Cyberabad Police in Telangana on Tuesday, December 6, busted a major human trafficking racket with the arrest of 17 persons. The racket involved trafficking of over 14,000 victims, including some from foreign countries. Cyberabad Police Commissioner Stephen Ravindra said the racket was being operated online from Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

‘Locanto', ‘Skokka', ‘Hyderabadescorts', ‘Callgirls in Hyderabad', ‘Luxuryescortservices', ‘myheavenmodels.com', and ‘natasharoy.in' were some of the websites which were being used for running the racket. “The call centres were operated from Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, and the main mode of communication was WhatsApp groups,” said the police.

Police said that most women were allegedly promised easy money, a better lifestyle, and jobs. A total of 14,190 victims were involved. Fifty per cent of the victims were from West Bengal, 20% from Karnataka, and 15% from Maharashtra. The rest of them were from countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Russia.

#Cyberabad‘s Anti-Human trafficking unit has busted a online #SexRacket,which trafficked 14,190 victims from various states of India since three years.

It is our collective duty to respect women and extend a helping hand by being vigilant & alerting authorities. #CyberabadPolice pic.twitter.com/7WzpUhJ4Un

— Cyberabad Police (@cyberabadpolice) December 6, 2022

The accused have been booked under Section 370 (buying or disposing of any person as a slave) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act at four police stations in Cyberabad. According to The Hindu, the arrested persons were earlier involved in 39 human trafficking cases, and the use of MDMA drug in the business, in Gachibowli, Miyapur, Kukatpally, Raidurgam, KPHB, Sanathnagar, SR Nagar, Abids, Bowenpally and Madhapur police limits.

The customers paid in cash or through digital payment apps. The organisers paid 30% money to the victims, 35% for ad posting and kept 30% with themselves, the police said.

Earlier, 40 cases were registered against the 15 organisers at Cyberabad and Hyderabad Commissionerates and in most cases, they were absconding. During the interrogation and confession of the accused, it was observed that a number of people from across India, who formed different WhatsApp groups subject-wise, like organisers, suppliers, ad makers, and call centre people, communicated with each other to carry out the business.