Cops bust 118 prostitution racket in 3 months

The police also rescued 229 women who were forced into prostitution, and shifted them to rehabilitation centres.

Hyderabad: The Telangana police busted 118 prostitution rings and arrested 326 persons involved in running the syndicates between January and March this year.

The police also rescued 229 women who were forced into prostitution, and shifted them to rehabilitation centres.

---

The Telangana Women Safety Wing along local police units across the State took up monitoring and enforcement of the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act 1956 commonly referred to as PITA. Prostitution across the State is organised under different garbs including spas and massage parlours, unisex saloons, friendship clubs and brothels operated from hotels, lodges, apartments and independent houses.

The police during the raids rescued victims who hail from Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Tripura, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and foreign countries like Bangladesh and Tanzania.

The Telangana Women Safety Wing officials said the organisers were finding newer ways to lure customers to the brothels and extensively using social media platforms to communicate with their clients.

The women who are foreign nationals arrive on tourist or medical visas to India while those from Bangladesh cross over the border illegally via West Bengal and come to the city.

In 2023, the Telangana police invoked PD Act against 23 repeated offenders while in 2024 the police could not identify any repeat offenders, data obtained under RTI points out.

A senior official of the TWSW said there are district-wise Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) that gather information and bust the prostitution rackets operated by organised gangs. “At initial stages, the women and girls are conned into flesh trade.

The brokers earn multi-fold the amount than what the victims are paid,” said the official. In recent times, residential apartments in the city are used for carrying out illegal activities under the garb of massage parlours and spas.