Online sex trafficking racket busted, 3 held

Hyderabad: The Anti-Human trafficking Unit of Rachakonda Police on Thursday busted an online sex trafficking racket and arrested three organisers.

The unit also rescued four victims from Maharashtra, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. The police arrested Sana Khan, 35, Qamar Unisa, 45, and Mohd Parwez Khan, 32.

Providing details about the operation, the police said that as a part of the sting operation, a member of police acted as a decoy and contacted Sana Khan on phone, and enquired about the availability of young women for prostitution. The accused quoted Rs 50,000 for four women and this amount was agreed upon. On 27 October, the member of the decoy team sent Rs 5,000 through PhonePe as an advance.

Later, Sana procured one of the victims who was under her control and contacted Qamar Unnisa for the other three. Sana agreed to pay an amount of Rs 20,000 for them. Accordingly, Qamar sent three women to Sana who in turn forwarded their photographs to the WhatsApp number of the decoy team member. A place to meet was agreed upon soon.

The decoy team met the accused at the parking place of Mount Opera, Batasingaram village on 28 October where Sana and Mohd Parwez Khan brought the four women. The decoy team then apprehended Sana and Parwez and rescued the women. Qamar was arrested at her house.

According to the police, the accused persons were the organisers of a brothel business and they have been running the business online in Hyderabad by luring women from Mumbai, Calcutta and Hyderabad in the name of providing jobs and forcing them into prostitution. The organisers were contacting people over the phone and were providing them women after customers transferred money to them through PhonePe or GooglePay.

“Sana would contact prospective customers through social media and would collect an amount of Rs 10,000 from each customer for each woman. The victims would get Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 per person,” the police added.