The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Prostitution a roaring business

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Tuesday, Aug 24, 2010
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Prostitution a roaring business

Staff Reporter

Customers charged between Rs. 25,000 and Rs. 1,00,000 on hourly basis

Two cars - Maruti Swift and Skoda – seized from pimps during Monday's raid
Uzbek woman promised Rs. 1 lakh if she works in brothel for a couple of weeks

HYDERABAD: Seizure of middle and high-end cars from the accused in the sex racket busted on Monday and their confession suggested that crores of rupees change hands monthly in the State capital's flesh trade.

Persons with monthly salaries ranging from Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 50,000 think twice to rent a house in posh localities like Banjara Hills or Kundanbagh. The alleged pimps operating the brothel at Kundanbagh hired a flat for a monthly rent of Rs. 18,000. Two cars, Maruti Swift and Skoda, were seized from two of them.

“During interrogation, the accused admitted to have struck a deal with the woman from Uzbekistan to pay a lakh rupees if she worked in their brothel for a couple of weeks,” an investigator said. The charges they collected from the customers ranged from Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 1,00,000 on hourly basis. The pimps arrange a sex worker for four to five customers a day on an average.

At this rate, some police officers estimate, turnover of the flesh trade Hyderabad and surrounding localities like Madhapur is running into crores of rupees monthly. In fact, the lure of the huge and easy money is driving some persons to operate brothels daring raids by law-enforcing agencies.

“Some customers don't mind to pay even a lakh of rupees for few hours if the sex worker is from film industry or abroad,” one of the pimps reportedly told his interrogators. The entire amount would not go to the sex worker but is shared by the pimp and the broker who brings the customers.

Some brothel operators take flats or independent houses on rent in posh localities not to come under the radar of the local police. They take the sex workers in luxury cars to show them to the high-profile customers and demand high amounts.

This is not the first time that persons connected to film industry and from abroad were arrested on flesh trade charge. Few weeks ago, the Hyderabad police caught a foreigner in a star hotel during a crackdown on prostitution.

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Andhra Pradesh