Representative image of police.
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The city police arrested nine people, including a Turkish woman, for allegedly running a prostitution racket using Telegram and similar mobile platforms, senior police officers said on Tuesday.
The arrested have been identified as Bioinyaz Swamy Gowda, 39, from Cooke Town; Jithendra Sahoo 43, from Peenya; Prakash K, 32, from Mahalakshmi Layout; Vaishak V Chatloor, 22, from Laggere; Govindraj, 34, from Parappana Agrahara; Akshay J, 32, from Nandini Layout; and Pramod Kumar, 31, and Manoj Das, 23, both from Odisha’s Balasore.
Police said that Bioinyaz met Rohith Swamy Gowda, a businessman from Bengaluru, in Turkey. The couple got married in Karnataka and have been staying in Bengaluru for the last 15 years.
Bioinyaz started the prostitution ring after Gowda died, police investigators said.
During the probe, the police found that Bioinyaz was in touch with pimps from Bengaluru, Jaipur, Chennai, Mysuru, Delhi, Udaipur and Mumbai and trafficked foreign nationals and solicited them into prostitution.
Police believe Bioinyaz ran the racket for several years before it was busted. Seven women, including five foreigners, were rescued. Three were also deported.
Covert operation
Investigators said the suspects ran a group on Telegram Messenger called 'Bangalore Dating Club' to get in touch with potential customers. The suspects posted photographs of women on the group.
Well-placed sources said that a police informant hid his identity in the group and set up a deal, which led to the arrests at a room in a hotel in Domlur. Police also found that women from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Turkey and some other countries were trafficked and used for prostitution.
The prostitution ring was busted in a joint operation by officials from the Baiyappanahalli and Halasuru police stations.