Falsely framed as sex worker, detained at govt home for 13 days, alleges woman

The victim, a BE (Computer Science) graduate from Madurai, said she moved to Chennai with her mother and brother a few months ago and joined the online marketing and web designing team for the certified spa services in the city after she came across the job opening on an online portal since she could not get a suitable job due to the lockdown.

While the woman had been working from home, she visited the spa in T Nagar on October 1 to receive her first month’s salary when she was secured by police in the name of surprise raids along with three other women.

The woman met the media on Monday and narrated the ordeal she underwent. “I was waiting at the reception when four male police personnel barged in claiming that the premise is used for flesh trade and secured me and three other women therapists. Without paying heed to my pleading, they took me to the police station and produced me in front of a magistrate through video conferencing. I was not allowed to put forth my version to the magistrate,” said the woman. She said she was sent to the rehabilitation home without her parents being informed about her detention.

The victim also alleged that policemen tried to touch her inappropriately and verbally abused her when she resisted. “Police also threatened the fellow detainees to make me confess that I worked as a therapist at the spa. The harassment continued at the rehabilitation home where the in-charge humiliated me and my family members,” said the woman adding she was forced to undergo an HIV test at the hospital a week after the detention.

Advocate Sreedhar, who accompanied the woman and her parents, said she attempted suicide unable to digest the injustice meted out to her. “There are so many legal violations in her detention. Police did not record the statements of two commoners during the raid as per Section 15 of Immoral Trafficking Act and she was only allowed to defend herself before the magistrate.”

When contacted, an inspector attached to the anti-vice squad denied the allegations and said the woman was sent to the rehabilitation home as per the due procedure. “There are already a few cases pending against the spa chain. The woman was present at the spa when the raid was on. She is being misguided by her employer and a few advocates to safeguard the main accused,” he said.