Chennai : The suburban city police conducted a surprise raid at a bungalow in Pallikaranai on Friday and rescued Prema (name changed), a 20-year-old girl model from a prostitution racket. The police arrested five persons including an agent, who brought the girl from Kolkata, on a ‘month-long agreement.’
On a tip-off, a police team sent a decoy to the bungalow on Thursday. The teenager, who was sent as decoy, was welcomed by a pimp and was asked to go to the first floor of the house after he paid money for the ‘service.’ A young woman was sitting inside the room and he immediately alerted the police team.
On receiving the cue, police personnel, who were waiting outside the bungalow, barged into the place and nabbed them. The police identified the arrested persons as Saravana Perumal, kingpin of the racket, Saravanan, Govindaraj, Hameed and Mani, who served as the security guard.
Police said Saravana Perumal had been running the illegal business for the past few months. Perumal had worked with the leading pimp ‘Kannada’ Prasad, who was arrested two years ago by the city police anti-vice squad under various sections.
He used to bring girls from several states across the country by air after entering into an agreement for 10 days to 30 days. He engaged pimps Saravanan, Govindaraj and Hameed for soliciting clients. They had been collecting close to Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000 per hour from customers.
Perumal allegedly confessed to the police that most of the customers were young professionals.
“These young men often book a girl who spends two or three days with them on out-bound programmes. The girl then gets back with good money. Usually, most of the youngsters here ask for Russian girls who arrive in the country on a tourist visa ,” police quoted Perumal as saying.
Police said Prema had flown down to Chennai only four days ago and was received by Perumal at the airport.
“Due to the sudden boom of several sectors that attract youngsters, such dubious businesses have also started focusing on Chennai. With a handsome dispensable income in their hands, these youngsters make a good market for these sophisticated pimps,” a police officer said.
“We are currently verifying with our colleagues, whether Perumal had been arrested in similar cases earlier for prostitution racket,” a police officer said.(TOI)
