Several auto drivers play touts in flesh trade in city

Several auto drivers play touts in flesh trade in city
Think twice when you take an auto at night
Vijay Times

Bangalore: Prostitution in the City has taken a new dimension with some autorickshaw drivers acting as touts, ferrying prostitutes for their clients, and taking a hefty commission in the bargain.

These touts roam around with prostitutes seated in the back seats of their autorickshaws and take ’orders’ over mobile phones from ’clients’.

"The girls are dropped for the night at the clients’ places and picked up next morning, making the job of tracing them almost impossible," a senior police officer from W omen and Narcotics Wing told Vijay T imes.

The indulgent Auto drivers take advantage of graveyard shifts in IT and BPO sectors where women workers often take autos back home in the absence of their office transport.

So , it is simple for the touts to operate. They go around with prostitutes at night looking for ’customers’, and if stopped by policemen, they hoodwink them into believing that they are only ferrying lady passengers from some call centre to their homes.

Afsar , an autorickshaw driver who is a tout has 15 girls in his prostitution ring, says rates range from Rs 2,500 to Rs 5,000 a night. Up to 30 per cent goes to the auto driver as commission. A late night recce with one of such auto drivers revealed that the girls came from different regional and financial backgrounds and with various personal woes.

"Majority of them are working class women and housewives whose husbands work out of town or abroad," said Mahadev , a tout operating in City Market area.

The police say this menace is specially on the rise now with out-ofbusiness live band artistes joining this profession.

According to the CCB officials, 90 per cent of the live band artistes have returned to their native places after the closure of live bands. Most among the remaining ten per cent have stayed back and entered this business.

4 These touts roam around with prostitutes seated in the back seats of their autorickshaws and take ’orders’ over mobile phones from clients

4 The girls are dropped for the night at the clients places and picked up next morning

4 The police say this menace is specially on the ris live band artistes joining this profession