Chennai woman forces daughter’s schoolmates into prostitution, arrested along with 6 others
The woman picked her daughter’s classmates after going through their social media profiles. She targeted girls from low-income families looking for part-time jobs and then groomed them, police said
Representative image (File)
CHENNAI: Probing a tip-off about school-going girls being forced into prostitution, city police busted a gang led by a 37-year-old woman who pushed her daughter's classmates from middle and lower-income families after grooming them.
Six others including a 70-year-old man were arrested by the Anti-Vice Squad (AVS) of Chennai Police. Police rescued two teenagers, aged 18 and 17, from the gang and sent them for counselling. Officials from the District Child Protection Unit (south), Childline and Child Welfare Committee (south) assisted the police in enquiring victims and further counselling.
According to police sources, on Saturday night, a posse of police personnel headed by Inspector Selvarani raided a lodge in Valasaravakkam and rescued the two girls.
Those in the lodge were rounded up and brought to the police station for further investigation where it was revealed that the main accused, K Nadhiya (37) had targeted classmates of her daughter after going through their profiles on social media. Nadhiya targeted girls from low-income families looking for part-time jobs and then groomed them by becoming friendly with the girls, taking them to dance classes and beautician courses.
Over time, Nadhiya lured them with cash worth Rs 25,000 and sent them to her clients. If the girls eventually opposed Nadhiya, she threatened them saying she had their videos with the clients which would be sent to their parents, police sources said.
Some of the girls were even taken to other cities like Hyderabad and Delhi, preliminary investigations revealed. Some of the clients were elderly men from Coimbatore and other cities. "The girls were tutored to lie to their parents about their whereabouts if they have to stay overnight at some place or travel," said an official.
Apart from Nadhiya, police arrested Sumathi (43), Maya Oli (29), Jayashree (43), Ramachandran (42), Ramandran (70) – all from Chennai – and Ashok Kumar (31) of Coimbatore. The arrested were produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.
Police suspect there are other victims too and will be seeking custody of the accused to get further details.