Tourist city Vizag now beset with sex trade

Visakhapatnam: These days Vizag city is flourishing as a tourist hub and is even being tipped to be the next ‘smart city’ in Andhra Pradesh. But along with it comes the negative aspect – a flourishing sex trade. Girls from various parts of the country and a few from other countries, are being trafficked. 

The organisers of the flesh trade are even roping in students of various colleges and also some foreigners by assuring them of easy money in a short time. The police say that several new gangs have joined the lucrative practice of women’s trafficking. 

A total of 27 sex rackets were busted last year, while 25 such cases were registered in 2016. Over 155 ‘bosses’ of the flesh trade were arrested and 65 girls were ‘rescued’ in the past two years.

A senior police officer on condition of anonymity said that most prostitution rackets were busted in apartments and individual houses in Vizag city. “The pimps choose rented apartments as most of the owners stay away and put up their flats for high rent. Because of this sometimes it is very difficult for us to bust the rackets. The clients used to spend between Rs 15,000 and Rs 30,000 per night on these college girls. We have rescued women from Bangladesh and Russia, who were pushed into the flesh trade,” he added.

“We are suspecting that some new gangs have been bringing girls to Vizag from Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata and a few other cities. We are looking for some female gang members of the rackets,” said ACP (Task Force) I Chitti Babu. 

“We are also chalking out plans to strengthen our intelligence system to instil fear among the racketeers,” he added. 

In 2016, the city police attached the properties of those responsible for operating the sex trade. 

Later they withdrew the decision saying that some owners of the apartments and houses were not aware of the illegal activities on their premises. 

Police need to keep a close watch on hotels, guest houses and beauty parlours, besides city apartments, to check all illicit activities, say social activists.