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Tamil Nadu
By S. Vijay Kumar
The car and mobile phones used by an inter-State gang in a call girl racket. - Photo: S.James
The gang would lure young girls from these States, with a promise of lucrative jobs in beauty parlours, hotels and corporate houses. Tempted by quick money, unsuspecting girls fall into the net, only to be forced into the flesh trade. ``The kingpin of the high profile call girl racket, involving college girls and lesser known film artistes, is based in Bangalore, and a special team has been formed to track him down,'' the Commissioner of Police, M.V.N. Surya Prasad, told The Hindu today. The prime suspect was said to have a wide network of pimps, who identified good-looking girls susceptible to exploitation because of their poverty. The girls were usually sent on contract for a week or fortnight depending upon the `veracity' of the customer. Going by the volume of money involved in the deals, it appeared, the girls were paid up to Rs. 25,000 per assignment, he said. According to one of the investigators, the list of clients included businessmen and bigwigs, some of them politicians and officials, who preferred `relaxing' in hill stations and private guest houses. The girls were often subjected to various forms of harassment, the common being nude photography and causing burns with cigarette butts. ``Since the clients pay a hefty sum, they take the girls for granted,'' he said. Though these victims stayed away from home for long, there was not a single complaint of their missing, as the parents, who received money every month, believed that the girls were well placed.
Exchange of girls
Friday's arrest of a dozen persons — eight girls and four `managers' — besides some pimps, also revealed exchange of girls between gangs which operated in air-conditioned cars and used mobile phones. ``They amassed huge wealth, including cars and immovable assets, over the years,'' said the Tallakulam ACP, Hema Karunakaran, who is investigating the case. A teenaged girl brought by one of the gang members, who fell into a police trap, had been under the direct custody of the kingpin in Bangalore. She was brought here to cater for a group of affluent clients in Virudhungar, Sivakasi and Rajapalayam towns. The trap also led to the arrest of R. Rajamni, who was wanted by the police for forcing two teenaged girls from Bangalore into the flesh trade in Madurai and Tuticorin ``by torture and threat.'' Though the Tuticorin police arrested one of the girls and Rajamani, the latter was released on payment of a fine in court. The girl, booked under the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, 1965, was sent to judicial custody. However, following intervention by the All-India Democratic Women Association, the police dropped action against her. Even the current police action was a fallout of the AIDWA representation to the Additional-Director General of Police (CB-CID), who directed Mr. Surya Prasad to conduct an ``effective raid against prostitution in Madurai city.'' The city police were coordinating with their counterparts in Hyderabad and Bangalore to launch a crackdown on the inter-State racket, police sources said.
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