Bhubaneswar, June 23: Pimps and "service providers" are increasingly taking to social media to seal sex deals with clients to avoid police hassles.
The popularity of is being exploited to run sex rackets through Facebook and WhatsApp in the city.
Using social media, the pimps show photographs of call girls to prospective customers and once the deal is sealed, the client is provided the route map to the hideout.
Yesterday, police busted a sex racket operating from a hotel at Bomikhal and arrested the hotel owner and three customers. On interrogating those arrested, the police came to know that the racket was being run using WhatsApp.
Hundreds of advertisements of prostitution services have flooded the virtual world and one can easily get the contact details of the pimps (or, service providers, as they are known in flesh trade parlance) by searching the online world with keywords such as "find an escort in Bhubaneswar" or "find a call girl in Bhubaneswar".
When this correspondent found the phone number of a "service provider" in Bhubaneswar online and subsequently pinged him on WhatsApp to find out what he had on offer, the conversation went this way:
Reporter: Hi! What all profiles do you have on offer?
Pimp: Sending photograph of six girls (six photographs also sent with the message).
Reporter: I need the fourth one.
Pimp: Ok, come to Ram Mandir Square and call me.
Reporter: How much is the deal for?
Pimp: Rs 3,800 fixed with AC room charge.
Reporter: Overnight deal?
Pimp: No, only one hour. Overnight service costs Rs 10,000.
Reporter: Are the pictures real?
Pimp: Yes. You see first and then take the service.
The tentacles of the pimps are widespread and the call girl profiles they have on offer range right from college-goers and homemakers, who are looking for some extra money, to minor girls and women from the poverty-stricken parts of the state and even neighbouring states, such as Bihar, Jharkhand, Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.
"The girls from neighbouring states would cost Rs 3,000 per hour and Rs 10,000 for an overnight booking. But college girls will cost double the amount," the pimp said.
The pimps have also devised a new plan of functioning for their "reliable and long-term" customers, who would wish to take away the girls. They keep their cars parked at a particular place in front of a four-wheeler showroom near Nakhara on the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar highway. The customers just go there, pick up the girls of their choice from among those sitting in the vehicle, and later drop them off at the same place after a few hours.
The pimps have several types of contracts with the call girls. Some get paid for their service on a daily basis, while others are employed on "annual contracts".
The call girls typically get 60 per cent of what the customer pays, while the pimp takes the remaining 40 per cent, said a source.
Tough time for cops
Police are having a tough time nabbing those running their hi-tech prostitution businesses with the help social media and various communication applications.
"It is very difficult to track them as they seal the deals on a one-on-one basis, and that too, by using codes which only they know. Most of these pimps use SIM cards with fake identity proofs. They also change their contact numbers frequently to prevent police from tracking them," said a senior officer of the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar police.
On the other hand, the girls rescued during raids most often continue in the profession even after coming out of rehab centres.
"We have come across several cases where the pimps have posed at rehab centres as their legal guardians and brought them back to the business," said the officer, adding that at least 50 sex rackets were busted in the past 10 months.
"The pimps are effectively communicating through social networking platforms to run their businesses. We have recently arrested a few pimps who admitted to communicating with their clients through the Internet," said deputy commissioner of police Satyabrata Bhoi.