Team Herald
PANJIM: The Goa Police Crime Branch has summoned three taxi drivers in their ongoing investigation into an online sex trade racket under the suspicion that the cabbies were complicit in the case and were involved in ferrying women and their clients to specific locations for a commission.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
The officers are reviewing records of taxi rides and questioning drivers who are being probed for aiding and abetting the sex racket. According to the police, the drivers have been identified as Imam Sutar from Paliem in Pernem, Umesh Bagli from Reis Magos and Zeeshan Ali Sheikh from Marod in Mapusa. All are helping in the investigation, officers said.
The Crime Branch had, earlier, arrested four alleged accused persons identified as Syed Usman, 54, from Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh, Mohammad Mohebbulla, 30, from Gurgaon in Haryana, Yogesh Kumar, 42, Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, and Subash Pradhan, a native of Odisha and presently residing at Nerul, Bardez. They were allegedly operating an escort website and had uploaded obscene photographs of women. They also provided a contact number on the website, which was used by the customers. Upon confirmation from customers, the accused coordinated with other agents to finalise transactions.
The police claimed that the website they had taken down is still operational and redirects to a different website, which features an array of photos of young women, along with their measurements, whose “services” can be booked with the click of a mouse.
Investigations revealed that the four accused facilitated the services by fixing deals, with customers making payments via cash or UPI-based mobile applications. The accused earned commissions for their involvement.
