Sex in the city: Murder of Uzbek national exposes thriving sex racket in Delhi

New Delhi: The facts emerging in the murder of Uzbek escort Shakhnoza Shukurova alias Shahnaz have turned the spotlight on the thriving flesh trade racket in the National Capital. The 19-year-old woman from Tashkent was allegedly invited by another Uzbek woman, Naaz, to join an escort service being operated by a third woman, Misha, who is said to be the wife of prime accused Gagan. Six persons, according to a senior Delhi police officer, including two women appear to be involved in planning Shukurova’s elimination. The reason: she wanted her 8,000 US dollars from escort operator Naaz. She used to get a nominal amount from Naaz and therefore, she wanted to operate independently. [caption id=“attachment_2519304” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP[/caption] When Misha and Gagan failed to resolve the payment dispute between Shukurova and Naaz, the Uzbek woman was abducted at the behest of Naaz by an Afghan boy and another man. They took Shukurova to Panipat from Delhi, raped and killed her in a car. Her body was thrown in an open field, the office said. The victim’s mother had information about the rift between her daughter and Naaz. When her repeated phone calls to Shukurova went unanswered on 26 September — the day she was murdered — the police was informed and the case was unearthed. The case will take its own course and the guilty will be punished, however, the big question here is will that stop the repeat of such an incident? Just how rampant is sex trade in the National Capital and how does the racket operate? Firstpost sought to get firsthand knowledge from the people directly involved in flesh trade. And here’s what we discovered. Red light areas still exist and people still frequent them, but these are mainly for the underclass. For people seeking secrecy and willing to pay bigger money there are other options. Modern technology, particularly the internet, is making it easy for clients and sex trade operators to interact and difficult for the police to get a whiff of it. The way it works: A simple Google search with key words ‘female escort Delhi’ guides you to multiple cell phone numbers and websites of different escort agencies. The invite generally goes like this: “Feeling lonely and wanna have fun with our call girls in Greater Kailash Okhla, Kalkaji, Govindpuri, Sarita Vihar, Jasola, Badarpur…. Call us now and book independent escorts in Nehru Place to make your day enjoyable and memorable….” Once you dial any number available on the internet, the person on the other side – the pimp – asks for your location and budget. He then gives you the choices in accordance with your affordability. If you are interested and wish to see photographs of the girls available, you get a bunch of pictures through WhatsApp. The women available, according to the pimp, range from housewives, college students and air hostesses, actresses, foreigners to models in the 18-35 age group. The prices vary between Rs 3,000 and Rs 50,000 and even go beyond a lakh as per the woman’s profile and the duration of stay with her. What about the place? “We do not have any office. We operate through cell phones. As per the clients’ choice, we contact our empanelled girls. We take two-three of them to a public place where customer picks any one of them. The payment is in cash once the deal is finalised. All girls work on commission basis. The client can now either take her to his own place or hotel where he is staying. If he does not have a place, we arrange an accommodation in a three, four or five-star hotel, depending on the budget of the client. We have a deal with particular hotels. To avoid surprise raids, we deploy our informers outside these. We have connections which help us evade police action,” a pimp at Nehru Place told Firstpost. By getting customers directly through websites and online advertisements, the pimps have reduced the risk of getting arrested. In fact, in the raids conducted recently, the police failed to lay their hands on the organisers and could only manage to arrest customers and rescue sex workers. Asked whether the girls stay with them all the time, he replied in “no” saying, “We contact girls according to the customers’ demand. They reach us and then we take them to customers.” He claims that most of the girls are working professionals who are into the profession because they want more money to “meet their lavish expenses”. ‘Few of us land in this profession by choice’ But contrary to the pimp’s claims, an escort told Firstpost, “Most of the women who work with escort agencies are either helpless and trafficked or estranged wives. Very few of us come in this business by choice or to meet the expenses of a lavish lifestyle. Take my case. I belong to Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. My father, who was the sole bread winner of my family, died when I was in standard nine. Since my mother was a homemaker and I was the eldest one in my family of four persons – one younger brother and sister, my mother and me — I had to move to Delhi to work somewhere. Initially, I began working as a sales girl at Sahara Mall in Gurgaon. I used to get a meagre sum of Rs 9,000 which was insufficient to meet the expenses of my family. Then I contacted the escort agency with which I am presently working. I get a monthly salary of Rs 60,000. Now, I am able to send the entire money to my family back in the village because I do not have any expense here. All our expenditure, including food, accommodation, clothing and make-up are taken care of by the agency.” The girls, she says, get equal respect as others in the society because their nature of job is a secret. “We are high-profile call girls but not prostitutes,” she added with smile. Asked whether they stay separately according to their wishes, she replied, “No…we stay in a rented flat in a posh locality of the city under the watch of our boss (a lady who is the operator) and her men. We are not allowed to move independently.” Asked how girls from abroad are brought into this business, she said, “They are approached by people known to them and who are already into the profession here. Once they agree to the terms and conditions, they come here on either tourist or students visas. Most of them are paid commissions. They serve high-profile clients like NRIs and foreign consulates and dignitaries. Their service cost is too high.” These women are also brought in and then roped in illegally by massage parlours, spas, bars and pubs under the garb of jobs of masseurs, dancers and waitresses. She said the escorts have to appear “attractive, entertaining and ingratiating even if she does not like the man who has hired her”. A difficult job for the police: According to the police officer, the online prostitution network is thriving in metros and a majority of clients are businessmen and young professionals with fat pay cheques. As the escorts directly reach a customer and pimps frequently rent and change flats in posh localities it has become difficult for the cops to launch a crackdown on the network. They are now trying to keep a watch on these websites, but the results are not satisfactory. “We have repeatedly written to internet service providers to shut down several escort service websites. But for every site we shut down, two new ones are popping up on the internet and it has become really difficult,” said the officer. The Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO) in the national capital has also launched a crackdown on escort agencies but foreigners are still employed in large numbers. Their officials have prepared a list on the basis of visas issued by India and started gathering information about such offices and showrooms where these foreigners are working illegally. “We are flooded with complaints that many foreign nationals — especially women from Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Indonesia, Thailand, Mauritius and Nepal — are coming into India on tourist visa and working at various places. Sometimes, they land here without any work permit. They reach India in groups with the help of travel agents, work here for six to nine months and leave after accumulating huge amounts,” he added.