Hyderabad: Sex racketeers are thriving on online platforms. The Hyderabad police arrested three Tanzanians earlier this month who used the Locanto platform to put up ads to run their activities. A search on ‘escorts in Hyderabad’ can land on this website, providing numerous options to choose from.
“Because of the repeated raids, the organisers of Locanto are cautious. We are checking other websites too,” said G. Naveen Kumar, special operation inspector at Malkajgiri.
The advertisements welcome customers with numbers, pictures and types of services to choose from under ‘personal’ section, ranging from ‘men seeking women’ to ‘women seeking men’ to ‘casual encounters’.
The gangs use professional methods to deal with clients. Once a client contacts, the agent confirms with the hotel to check if the customer is genuine. After confirmation, he would give details of the woman and the payment.
Earlier this month, SOT officials in a decoy operation along with the Kushaiguda police apprehended three Tanzanians for prostitution. Ksuka, 23, the kingpin, was organising the racket with Lilian Reymond Massawe, 25 and Paranoid Alex Kiondo, 25, who came on a visit visa.
“The girls uploaded their photographs on the website, locanto.com, and gave their contacts numbers. We conducted a decoy operation and contacted them, who demanded '20,000. They informed us their residence and the decoy team went there and found them half-naked with a man in the room,” said R. Uma Maheshwara Shar-ma, DCP, Malkajgiri.
These phone numbers belong to dead persons and the SIM cards are purchased with fake identity cards. They send photos of the girl through WhatsApp or gives URLs of blogs, police officials said. A large number of sex workers are from Kolkata and Mumbai.
“They also keep changing their mobile numbers to escape,” the police said.
