Hyderabad:  The Cyberabad Police busted a major sex racket on Tuesday by arresting 17 persons and rescued over 14K victims, including some from foreign countries. Speaking to the media persons Cyberabad Police Commissioner Stephen Ravindra said the racket was being operated online from Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

The accused were procuring women from different places across India, posting ads on websites, contacting the customers through call centres and WhatsApp, facilitating the customers to reach the victims in different hotels, Oyo rooms, and collecting money for this organized prostitution racket, he said.

A total of 14,190 victims were involved in prostitution. 50% of the victims were from West Bengal, 20% from Karnataka, and 15% from Maharashtra. 3% victims were from countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Russia.

‘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, said police. The call centres were operated from Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad and the main mode of communication was WhatsApp groups.

The police booked case under IPC Sections 370 (buying or disposing of any person as a slave) and Sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act at four police stations in Cyberabad.

During the interrogation and confession of the accused, it was observed that a number of pimps were there from different states, which formed different WhatsApp groups subject-wise, like organizers, suppliers, ad makers, call centre people, who communicated with each other for the business. A large number of victims were dragged into this profession after being lured with luxurious lifestyle, easy money and in some cases, on the pretext of providing jobs.

Cyberabad police commissioner explaining the modus operandi of the accused, that brokers (victim suppliers) used to approach the victim and put her photos in the organizers’ WhatsApp group, who then selected the victims, booked hotels, flight tickets etc. Thereafter, the victims checked into the hotels. The organizers posted pictures of victims in WhatsApp groups and uploaded them on call girl websites.

Whenever the customers called the WhatsApp number or sent messages, the call centre persons shared the contact details with the organizers. The organizers then facilitated service from the victim.

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