Innocent li’l girls caught in vicious web of flesh trade

Yadgirigutta: A sordid tale of young girls being forced into prostitution in the pilgrimage town of Yadagirigutta came to light on Tuesday with the arrest of eight brothel owners.

The police, in coordination with the officials of the Integrated Chid Development Services (ICDS) swooped down on the brothel owners at Backward Classes Colony and Ganeshnagar here on Monday. In all, 11 girls, in the age group of 3-12, were rescued from the clutches of the brothel owners, according to Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagawat here on Tuesday.

The rescued girls were produced before the Child Welfare Committee and were shifted to the State Home. The raids, conducted jointly by the ICDS officials and the police, exposed the child trafficking and procurement of girls.

Bhagwat and Deputy Commissioner of Police Ramachandra Reddy the brothel owners had been found procuring girls and pushing them into prostitution. The girls were administered hormone injections for early puberty. 

It is suspected that the pimps could have targeted children who were lonely and orphan, kidnapped and sold them to these brothel houses. The traffickers were procuring the children, taking advantage of their poverty, from different places through professional mediators and took care of them till their teenage, it is said. 

Investigations revealed that some of the orphaned girls were abducted from the Secunderabad railway station and the others were brought by the brothel owners at a price ranging between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2 lakh. Apart from eight persons arrested, some of those, who were arrested under the Preventive Detention (PD) Act had played a key role in procuring girls. 

The police declared that all the houses owned by the brothel owners would be seized under the Immoral Trafficking and Prevention Act, the Police Commissioner said. The Revenue Divisional Officer would invoke the Magisterial powers to seize the houses. The arrested are K Kalyani (25), K Anitha (30), K Susheela (60), K Narasimha (23), K Sruthi (25), K Saritha (50), K Vani (28) and K Vamshi (20).