An inter district sex racket was busted by Palamu police where in police remanded in judicial custody eight people late in the evening of February 12.
Five out of eight people were sent to Central jail Daltonganj are women. Residents of the town have congratulated police for this discovery of under belly sex trade here.
Sources said SDPO Sadar Sandip Kumar Gupta and his team of police officials namely Anand K Mishra (inspector cum officer in charge Town police station) Priyanka Anand (OC Mahila police station) R Yadav ( ToP 1) Sudheer Kumar ( ToP 2) and a few probationer SIs of police were on the trail of this sex racket here in the town over the last 6 weeks or so.
Sources said what the police have so far unearthed is just a tip of the iceberg as sources said there are more faces and more hands behind this sex racket.
Gupta said, “About half a dozen districts like Ranchi, Latehar, Garhwa, Palamu etc are involved in this flesh market. There is a big network. We have been able to expose it. Eight have gone to jail. We are still working on this. There can be many more behind this racket.”
Gupta said, “Our team worked too silently. It did not make any noise. The racket was running even from private residential houses. It was a difficult job for police to expose it as any noise over it would have painted that locality in too bad and poor light. We were too cautious and careful.”
Sources said the culture of sex marketing which one finds in beauty parlour or massage parlour of big cities is not here. Sources said sex is bought and sold still in its old traditional style. Poverty, not luxury is the major cause said SDPO.
Gupta said, “Police have so far found no trace of any school or college going girl doing this obscene work. We have also not found so far any evidence to suggest that girls living in private lodge/government hostel etc are any involved in it.”
He agreed that rural and urban girls and women are definitely involved in it. As regards rural women’s involvement in this immoral trafficking Gupta said, “The age group of rural fair sex indulged in this trade is between 22 to 45. Most of them are married. Their husbands are away from homes for earning livelihood and come homes after 6 months or 9 months or even after a year. Their absence spurs these married women to get in sex sale for cash.”
Gupta said some profiles readied by our team found widows too in this sale purchase of sex who do so to meet their daily needs of living as there is none to support them any financially.
He said the sex purchase - sale has many components like rent of room/ house where sex is provided, commission to pimp, charging from the customer, wages to girls/ women who sleep with males etc.
He said a woman/girl who so sells her body gets not beyond 500 rupees, while the major share of money gets down to others like racketeer, pimps etc.
Police have seized used condoms, unopened packets of condoms, butts of burnt cigarettes, empty bottles of wine, disposable glasses too from the scene where this sex crime was done.
A lawyer not willing to be identified said such a case where an adult woman so sleeps with an unknown man all for money to live on is a matter of consensual sex and hence police will have to work too harder to prove the case that this immoral trafficking was harming the conscience of the society.
