Hyderabad: While enforcement agencies go after the drug mafia, for another highly organised crime, it is business as usual. The sex trade has gone hi-tech in Hyderabad and neighbouring districts, with classified websites, private blogs, independent websites and WhatsApp connecting with customers.
Hyderabad is now the top destination for sex workers from other states, who often fly in during the weekend and fly out, leaving no trace.
“A customer just needs to run a search in Google with keywords like ‘escort service in Hyderabad’ or ‘call girls in Hyderabad’. The search will yield a large number of pages with contact numbers. An agent will answer the call and send the girl or invite the customer to any of the ‘pick up points’ in the city after confirming the whereabouts of the potential client. Before clinching the deal, the agent will send photos of girls through WhatsApp,” said a police official.
Apart from these mainstream sites, a search with keywords like ‘beauty services’ will yield hundreds of personal blogs with photos of sex workers and descriptions of their ‘capabilities’.
Though a few sex rackets were busted in the past, the big fish are still out there, hiding in the posh areas of Madhapur, Hitech City, and Jubilee Hills. Service apartments are their havens, a former pimp says.
After a customer contacts the agent on the phone numbers given online, the agent confirms the genuineness of the customer by asking the name of the hotel the caller is staying in, and then calling up the reception desk to check if such a person has checked in. After confirming, he will call back and give details of the girls and payment and the address where they are available.
“The organisers bring the girls for a week or 10 days to the city from other states, and then send them back to evade us,” said an official.
