Hyderabad: On February 6, the Tandur police in Ranga Reddy district found the body of a woman, fully burnt, near the north compound wall of the Rudra Bhoomi graveyard. Cops suspected that the 35-year-old woman had been burnt alive.
An investigation into the murder later revealed a lesser-known practice that exists in Telangana’s villages: Truck-stop prostitution. Young women from poor families wait by national highways and major truck terminals and parking areas for truck drivers to pick them up. Trucks coming halt at the terminals and parking areas in various districts and the drivers use the “services” of these women.
Following a probe into victim Talwar Venkatamma’s murder at Tandur, Ranga Reddy police arrested two young women. The suspects, Kondaipally Narsamma, 28, and Vadde Kavitha, 25, confessed that they had got the victim drunk and killed her for her silver ornaments weighing 230 gram.
Read: Hyderabad: Drivers find women on NH cheap for sex
When Venkatamma had passed out after drinking toddy near the graveyard, the duo poured kerosene over her and burnt her alive. Narsamma was a close relative of the victim.
The two were natives of Anantharam and Karankote villages but spent most of their time by the highways, waiting to get picked up. Police said they were addicted to alcohol and are desperate for money.
“The truck terminal in Tandur is spread across four acres. More than 100 trucks on long-distance routes halt there everyday. Women sex workers from nearby villages wait near the road. Tandur police often book cases and rehabilitate them,” said Ranga Reddy SP Rema Rajeswari.
Truck traffic is high in Tandur. Similarly, Suryapet of Nalgonda, Sanga Reddy in Medak and places in Mahbubnagar, Adilabad, Khammam and Nizamabad, where national highways pass through are where truck drivers pick up village women.
“When we find such a woman on road, we warn her. If she repeats it, we book a case for creating public nuisance,” an official from Miryalaguda subdivision of Nalgonda police said.
Senior police officials say this is not organised prostitution. Women who are in dire need of money come from their village to the roads.
“I spend 15 to 20 days on the road, driving continuously. It gets lonely. Sometimes, when I see these sex workers, I stop and take their service,” said a 42-year-old truck driver from Thane, Maharashtra who frequently passes by Sangareddy.
