Bangalore cine artiste, Uzbek held in sex racket

City police busted an interstate flesh trade racket and arrested four call girls, including a junior Bollywood artiste and an Uzbek woman, in Koramangala on Tuesday.

The gang was operating with the help of four middlemen—Sameer, Kaviraj, Vinay Kumar and Usman—from a posh apartment in Koramangala. It used to solicit customers online and over phone and even offer pick-and-drop facility.

Siddapura police inspector CR Ravishankar said pimps used Sana Khan, a small-time B-town actress, and Khalida, an Uzbek national, as trump cards after luring customers by claiming to arrange cine artistes, models and foreigners. Khan used to flaunt her Mumbai Cine Artiste Association ID card to lure clients.

According to the police, there has been a trend of girls working as junior film artistes for a while and then getting into flesh trade as there is huge demand for artistes and models. “They would work in a few films. After securing ID cards issued by cine associations they would get into prostitution as artistes and models are paid well by customers,” police said.

Acting on a tip-off from one of the victims who was cheated by the gang, police raided the apartment and nabbed the girls along with Rashmi, who was managing the racket. Efforts are on to nab Usman and apartment owner Shivaprakash who managed to escape.

“They used to shoot videos of clients’ interaction with the girls and then blackmail them,” police said.

Ravishankar said the arrested persons seem to be part of an interstate gang that operates out of Bangalore and Mumbai.