Hyderabad: A couple from Golconda allegedly forced a 15-year-old girl into prostitution and wooed customers by sending them the girl's photographs through WhatsApp. When the girl resisted the couple locked her up. The racketeers had some other women too, but they were above 18. The couple, Md. Faheem and Shaheen Begum, kept their business secret by telling neighbours that the girls were housekeepers. Police busted the racket after the minor’s mother approached the police.
The mother of the girl said that her minor daughter was forced into prostitution, and that many men had raped her in the last two months after paying the couple money. Langer Houz police, who arrested the couple, said that Faheem was a realtor and his wife Shaheen a Tollywood junior artiste. “The girl belongs to a poor family. Two months ago the couple brought her to their home at Ashamnagar and employed her as a maid. But, soon they started compelling the girl to go with men who visited the house for sex,” said inspector Mohammed Javeed.
The couple developed a network of customers through WhatsApp and send photographs of women to attract them. “Using their old customers the couple bagged new ones. They were taking up to Rs 3,000 for this girl,” said a police officer. The couple also tried to pacify the girl by paying her 15 per cent of what they earned through her. However, she told her mother about her terrible ordeal. The mother told the police that the girl was kept locked up in the house against her will. “Our team rescued the minor girl. Another woman aged around 21 was also found. We are investigating how many more women are working for them,” said the inspector. Police booked a case against the couple for immoral trafficking and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). Both were remanded to judicial custody after a hearing in court.
