“House of prostitution” busted in Tamilnadu, 21 arrested in separate actions!!!

Chennai: In  another strike on people involved in flesh trade, Tamil Nadu Police, in 2 different operations  busted two prostitution rackets operating in Thanjavur and Coimbatore districts of the state and arrested 21 pimps and rescued 10 women on Wednesday.

Thanjavur district
In Thanjavur, Superintendent of Police (SP) Deshmukh Shekhar Sanjay, after receiving a clue about the operation of a prostitution racket, commissioned three special teams headed by sub-inspectors  for conducting raids at various places in the city.The teams identified seven houses from where a prostitution racket was being operated under the garb of massage parlours and companies. Of the seven houses, three were set as massage parlours while the remaining four were fake companies.

According to a report , nine women from Tamil Nadu and other neighbouring states including Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh were rescued. Police arrested a total of 19 pimps and produced them before a district court. The court issued an order to remand them in judicial custody.  Meanwhile, the rescued women were sent to state-run shelter homes in the city.

Coimbatore district
In Coimbatore, rural police on Wednesday night unearthed a prostitution racket that was operating inside a rented lodge near Mettupalayam. Police arrested two people for running the flesh trade from the lodge and rescued a 22-year-old woman from Karnataka’s Bengaluru. The arrested accused, identified as R Ganeshan (36) and K Mahendran (46), had forced the woman into prostitution after the imposition of the pandemic-induced lockdown.

“The duo said they started running the sex racket after the lockdown affected their business very badly. Mahendran had to pay a monthly rent of Rs 50,000. As he was out of business since March, he was unable to pay the rent,” a report by TOI quoted a police officer as saying.

A case has been registered against the accused under relevant sections of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act. They were remanded in judicial custody after police produced them before a judicial magistrate on Thursday.