In a shocking incident, a special police team led by Chittoor SP Ghattamaneni Srinivas and Additional SP (Operations) Y. Ratna on Tuesday night nabbed a two-member gang involved in trafficking of women to foreign countries, at Dasukuppam in Satyavedu mandal bordering Tamil Nadu.

The duo had reportedly trafficked about 150 women in five years from various parts of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh to South East Asian countries and Dubai.

Addressing the press, Additional SP Y. Ratna said that “after a month-long surveillance the duo were nabbed. A woman victim of Satyavedu locality, who had recently escaped from the clutches of a brothel house in Malaysia, had approached the Chittoor SP, who in turn formed the special party to look into the gang’s operations. The nabbed duo were identified as A. Rafi (41), the inter-state gang leader, and his agent Pandiya Rajan (38). Rafi is from Kodizhaivur locality of Chennai.”

He added “during the last 20 years, he was an agent with a travels company in Chennai, and later himself turned into a travel agent, providing visas and assisting customers for passports and flight tickets. Five years ago, Rafi developed intimacy with a brothel house woman operator Dhanu in Malaysia.”

“With the help of Dhanu, Rafi formed a network of agents all over Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, and started sending young women luring them with lucrative jobs in foreign countries. Dhanu kept receiving the women and forcing them into flesh trade. She used to send money to Rafi in India through hawala mode. During police investigation, as many as 19 agents under the Rafi-Dhanu network were identified, and special teams were formed to nab them.”

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BY M. DIVYA SRI