9 including Turkish woman held for running prostitution racket using dating app

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Nine people including a Turkish woman were arrested by the Halasuru Police in the city for allegedly running a prostitution racket using mobile applications here.

The suspects were identified by the police as Bioinyaz Swamy Gowda, 40, a resident of Cooke town; Akshay J, 32, a resident of Nandini Layout; Govindraj, 34, a resident of Parappana Agrahara; Vaishak V Chatloor, 22, a Laggere resident; Prakash K, 32, of Mahalakshmi Layout, Odisha natives Manoj Das, 23, and Pramod Kumar, 31; and Peenya resident Jithendra Sahoo, 43.

During a press conference on Tuesday, Bengaluru Police Commissioner B Dayananda explained that the Halasuru Police Inspector had received credible information regarding women being kept illegally at Leela Park hotel in Domlur.

Based on this, the police initiated a special operation and raided the location.

The team arrested four people and based on the information received from them, another person was nabbed who allegedly used Telegram and other dating applications to lure customers into his illegal business.

The police cracked the case after one of the informants disguised as a customer and got in touch with the suspects.

The officers found that the racket brought in women from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Turkey and other countries.

"The prime accused Bioinyaz, who is a native of Turkey, came to India 15 years ago. She has been part of the racket for at least eight to 10 years," said Dayananda.

It was learnt that fifteen years ago, Bioinyaz married Rohith Swamy Gowda, a Bengaluru-based businessman whom she met in Turkey.

They came to India, but Rohith died 10 years ago. Later, Bioinyaz got into prostitution, the police said. Bioinyaz lived in Cooke town with her nine-year-old daughter.

The police rescued over five foreign nationals and produced them before the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO). Further investigations are underway.