Two people, including a young woman, were arrested by the Tamil Nadu Police on Tuesday during a raid of a working women's hostel in Chennai, where they were allegedly coercing women into prostitution. Three women were rescued by police and taken to a government shelter.
The Anti-Vice Squad (AVS) investigated a hostel on the Egmore-Poonamallee motorway that had been reported to them as a brothel.
Jayapradha (19) of Puducherry and Premdoss (30) of Kilpauk, the ringleaders, were apprehended by the police, and their cell phones were confiscated. The police are making every effort to apprehend the remaining fugitive gang member, according to an officer.
The court ordered the accused to remain in custody until further notice.
The police claim that the racket members, posing as representatives of major corporations, would lure young women from other cities and towns to Chennai in the hopes of getting them to work for them for low wages and inflexible hours.
They claimed that the gang would abduct them, bring them to the hostel, and then force them to engage in prostitution.
After orders from Chennai Police Commissioner Shankar Jiwal, the Greater Chennai Police Department assembled a crackdown team to clamp down on prostitution rings in the area.
