TN police launch crackdown on prostitution racket

A couple of days after it busted a prostitution racket involving foreigners and arrested two persons here, the Tamil Nadu Police have commenced a crackdown on immoral flesh trade in the state.

Four Kenyan women were confined in a hotel room in Chennai and were forced into prostitution.

The two arrested were M. Kannan (31) of Salem and P. Saravanaraj (43) of Alandur.

Police found an African woman loitering in the streets of C.V. Raman Nagar in Chennai and when questioned, she narrated that she and three other Kenyan women were involved in prostitution in a hotel room and that she had come out of the room after there was a rift with those running the racket.

On investigation, the C.V. Raman Nagar police found that the four women were on tourist visas to India. Police found that the visa of one of the women had expired.

A high-level meeting of senior police officers was held on Tuesday and it was decided to conduct a crackdown in all the lodges, hotels and homestays in the state to bust the prostitution rackets.

According to a senior police officer in the state headquarters, messages have been passed on to all the District Superintendents of Police to constitute special teams at the taluk level and to conduct proper checks at all the lodges and hotels as well as home stays and paying guest accomodations in their respective jurisdictions.

The police officers have also been directed to properly check the passport and visa details of all foreigners who were found staying in these residential accommodations.

The state police have also found that certain international terror groups were also involved in such prostitution rackets and drugs were also supplied in these dens.

There have been complaints from certain tourist spots in Tamil Nadu about the presence of prostitution and agents trying to lure tourists to these places.

Sources in the state police told IANS that the crackdown will commence this week and will continue for a few days to bust such rackets that were giving a bad name to the state in certain tourist spots. (IANS/NS)