Andhra Pradesh tops in human trafficking cases

Hyderabad: The state is still the hub of sex trafficking. DGP B. Prasada Rao said that in 2013, the police arrested 778 traffickers and rescued 558 victims including minors.

The human trafficking racket has links to Gulf countries and Mumbai and other places within the country. The DGP said  the police had booked 386 cases of trafficking of women and apart from traffickers, had also arrested 363 customers. At least 11 minors, who were forced into sex racket, were also rescued.

“The CID’s anti-trafficking units are trying to curb the menace,” he said. Local sex racketeers have turned hitech and were contacting clients through mobile applications, whatsapp and social networking sites like Facebook. In November 2013, in a sex racket busted at Punjagutta, the women were flown in from New Delhi, Pune and Mumbai.

The organiser, identified as Peter alias Chetan from New Delhi, used to send the pictures of the women through the Internet. Last year, also witnessed several high profile sex rackets. In one case in October, the police arrested an industrialist named S.K. Goenka, the MD of Jay Raj Ispat and rescued a TV actor.

CID officials said apart from local gangs there were cross-border gangs trafficking women to the city from Bangladesh via Kolkata. From Kolkata they are taken to Biwandi in Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad by train. Several Bangladeshi girls were rescued in the city.

Trafficking of young women from the state to Gulf countries including Dubai, Kuwait and Oman and forcing them into the sex trade hasnâ?Tt stopped according to anti trafficking police. The women were trapped in the racket after being promised jobs as maid servants and baby-sitters in Gulf countries.