Noida: Two persons arrested for running prostitution racket

Noida: The Gautam Budh Nagar police’s anti-human trafficking unit (AHTU) on Saturday arrested two persons for allegedly running a prostitution racket in the district

Noida: The Gautam Budh Nagar police’s anti-human trafficking unit (AHTU) on Saturday arrested two persons for allegedly running a prostitution racket in the district. Two women, who appear to be victims of human trafficking, have been detained for questioning, said police.

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The suspects were identified as Buddhiman Lama, 35, a native of Nepal, and Monu, 30, a native of Bhatinda in Punjab. Police said that an accomplice of the suspects is at large and that they have launched a search for him.

The two suspects were living in a rented accommodation in Delhi and they were running the prostitution racket through social media, said police.

Vrinda Shukla, deputy commissioner of police (women safety), GB Nagar, said that police had received information about the gang which was contacting people on WhatsApp and supplying women to them.

“The AHTU started investigating the matter. The police team made two decoy customers and fixed a meeting with the suspects on Saturday. Lama and Monu reached a guest house in Noida Sector 56 with two women in a car. The police team in plainclothes then arrested them,” she said.

The DCP said that the two women appear to be victims of trafficking and they are being questioned in connection with the racket. “One woman is from Nepal and another from West Bengal. The two suspects revealed that they ran the prostitution racket through WhatsApp and they had no office per se. They used to fix the deal with people and then book rooms in guest houses, or sent the women to the customer’s flats,” she said.

The suspects used to charge their clients anything between ₹5,000 and ₹20,000 while they would pay ₹1,500 to a woman, said police.

A case has been registered against them under Section 370-A (2) (trafficking of a person) of IPC and sections 3, 4, and 5 of Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956. The two suspects were produced in court and sent to judicial custody.