Panaji, March 19 (IANS) In a major breakthrough against digital crimes, the Goa Crime Branch has busted an inter-state prostitution racket, arresting three persons responsible for creating and managing websites used to disseminate sexually explicit and objectionable content, the police said on Thursday.

The crackdown, led by the Crime Branch in coordination with the Social Media Monitoring Cell, resulted in the blocking of 22 illegal escort websites.

After a period of intense surveillance, an FIR was registered on March 9 under Section 67 of the IT Act and Section 6 of the Indecent Representation of Women’s Act.

According to Superintendent of Police (Crime/Cyber Crime) Rahul Gupta, technical investigations identified a suspect, Narayan Rao, a native of Shivamogga, Karnataka, as the primary operator. Subsequent raids conducted in Nerul and Bardez in Goa led to the arrest of three accused on the morning of March 14.

The arrested accused have been identified as the alleged mastermind, V. Narayan Rao (40), Shahbaz Khan (33) from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, and Manjunath Shahshetty (36) from Bidar, Karnataka.

During the operation, the police recovered a laptop and five mobile phones, including a device directly linked to the website.

An investigation into the suspects’ bank accounts revealed a trail of payments made via Google Pay and UPI by victims.

“It was established that the accused were sustaining themselves on earnings from prostitution,” SP Gupta said.

Consequently, Section 4 of the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act (ITPA) was added to the charges. Interrogation of the suspects has revealed that Rao’s network extended far beyond Goa, with active operations in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Jaipur, and Delhi. Authorities concerned have already frozen a bank account belonging to the main accused containing Rs 2.34 lakh.

The investigation, led by SP Jivba Dalvi and under the overall supervision of SP Gupta, is ongoing as police work to identify further victims and trace the full extent of the syndicate’s financial transactions.

The accused were remanded in three-day police custody to facilitate deeper custodial interrogation for more details about the gang and its operations.

–IANS

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