Call money racket gets murkier

Vijayawada: The State government is set to act tough on the accused in the call money-flesh trade racket that was busted in the city last week. The police have arrested three, while served notices to six other accused in the racket.

• Number of victims is shooting up by the day
• Accused persons have links to all political parties
• TDP MLAs Bode Prasad and Buddha Venkanna deny ties with the accused

The task force officials launched a manhunt for the accused who have been absconding since the racket was exposed. Ever since the racket was busted, the police have been receiving number of telephone calls from the victims, while some have directly approached them seeking justice.

The police, who have seized three gunny bags full of documents and promissory notes from the office of the accused, are examining them to identify the victims and return their money. They are also looking into the videos that were collected from the office which were used by the gang to blackmail the women from the borrowers’ families.

However the victims, who are visiting the task force office with complaints, are unwilling to reveal their identity due to obvious reasons. It has been learnt that in some cases, the accused sedated the victims and sexually abused them, while they were unconscious.

These acts were taped, which are used to blackmail, the victims into flesh trade. Police say that the list is very long and the numbers of victims are shooting up every day. The accused have alleged political links cutting across the party lines.

A few police and government officials are also partners in the racket and it is reliably learnt that the racket has blessings from a handful of elected representatives. A senior official of the Transco, M Satyanandam, who is missing from the day of the arrests, was suspended by the corporation. A retired police officer and another who is still serving, are active partners in the gang, it is alleged.

The police have named Yalamanchili Srirama Murthy alias Ramu, Venigalla Srikanth, Pendyala Srikanth and Bhavani Shankar, who have close ties to the leaders of ruling party apart from others like Chennupati Srinivasa Rao, brother of former MLA Chennupati Rathnakumari and Dudala Rajesh, a member of Congress party.

The opposition are stepping up an ante and mounting pressure on the government. CPI State secretary K Ramakrishna demanded the police to look into the political relations of the accused and take action against the leaders, if they found guilty. The APCC vice-president Devineni Rajasekhar alias Nehru had demanded stern action against the ruling party legislators with links with the accused.

TDP legislator from Penamaluru, Bode Prasad, MLC Buddha Venkanna, who are accused of having ties with the gang, denied their involvement in the case. They said that they were ready for any scrutiny.

By D Gopi