Alappuzha: The arrest of three people, two of them women, over the murder of Mary Jacquelin, 52, on Thursday has given a breakthrough for the police to bust the houseboats-centred sex racket here.
In 2013, the DC had found Zeenath, one of the accu-sed, driving young girls into sex tourism. Her arrest could help police to unravel its tentacles.
Zeenath, 60, was arrested for helping Ajmal, 28, of Punnapra South, the first accused, to sell the stolen gold ornaments of the deceased.
According to the police, the victim and the accused were partners in sex trafficking. An argument over pay had resulted in the murder.
The DC investigation in 2013 had revealed a twenty-year-old girl from Adoor trafficked by Jessy, an agent living in a rented house here, was supplied to an Arab tourist for three days for `45,000 with the help of Zeenath and Shehna.
A day later she escaped from the houseboat unable to bear restless encounters.
The report titled "Sex tourism thriving" published on June 26, had said the depressed girl was staying with Zeenath and was paid `10,000.
P.V. Baby, DySP Alapp-uzha, said Zeenath had a long history of sex trafficking.
“Her arrest would help check sex racket in houseboat industry. We have be-en looking into all aspects of the case,” he said.
DC had found a ‘youth brigade’ nurtured under her to hang around colleges in the town luring young girls.
In 2006, a study titled “Trafficking in Women and Children in India” by the New Delhi-based Institute of Social sciences sponsored by National Human Rights Commission and funded by a UN agency had found Alappuzha as a hotspot for child sex.
