PANAJI
The Crime Branch has arrested three persons for allegedly running escort websites linked to a nationwide prostitution racket, with transactions routed through digital payment platforms.
The arrests followed surveillance by the Crime Branch and its Social Media Monitoring Cell, which identified 22 websites hosting explicit content. An FIR was registered against these sites, all of which have since been blocked.
CB SP Rahul Gupta said the main accused, V Narayanrao (40) from Karnataka, was identified during technical investigation. He was arrested along with Shahbaz Khan (33) from Madhya Pradesh and Manjunath Shahshetty (36) from Karnataka during coordinated raids in Goa. The trio has been remanded to three days of police custody.
Police seized multiple mobile phones and a laptop linked to the operation. Preliminary analysis of devices and bank records revealed that payments were received via Google Pay and other UPI platforms, indicating earnings from prostitution.
The accused allegedly operated across several cities, including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Jaipur and Delhi. Police have also frozen a bank account of the main accused containing Rs 2.34 lakh.
