Chennai: Police bust prostitution racket involving schoolgirls, arrest 7

The anti-vice squad of Chennai Police arrested a woman and six of her associates on charges of forcing schoolgirls into prostitution, and rescued two teenage girls, aged 17 and 18, from the gang.

The police, acting on a tip-off, raided a lodge on Saturday night (May 18) and arrested seven people.

The main accused in the case, 37-year-old K Nadhiya, targeted the classmates of her daughter studying in a school in Chennai. She befriended them under the guise of teaching them dance and also conducted beautician courses, telling them that they could earn money part-time while studying. The girls hailed mainly from middle and lower-middle-class families.

Nadhiya lured the girls into prostitution promising them amounts of ₹25,000-₹30,000. They were made to serve clients not only in Chennai but also in Delhi, Coimbatore, and Hyderabad. Nadhiya coached the girls to make up stories for their parents whenever they had to travel to other cities or stay overnight in Chennai, said the police.

The main accused selected her clients through social media platforms and contacted them personally to close the deals. Some of the clients were elderly men from Coimbatore and Hyderabad who were willing to pay more for schoolgirls, police said.

If some of the girls wanted to stop their participation in the prostitution racket after some time, Nadhiya threatened to reveal videos of the girls with the clients to their parents, the police said.

The others who were arrested in the case included five from Chennai - Jayashree, 43, Ramandran, 70, Sumathi, 43, Ramachandra, 42, Maya Oli, 29 – and Ashok Kumar, 31, from Coimbatore. The seven accused were produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody.

The police said that the girls were being counselled by officials from the Child Line and Child Welfare Committee and from the District Child Protection Unit.