Man held for operating call centre offering sex chat services in Mumbai

In a major crackdown on Tuesday, the Unit 11 of Mumbai crime branch busted a video sex call centre and rescued 17 women, including young students. The owner of the call centre was arrested, and 19 mobile phones, one laptop and other material was seized from the premises. The police are investigating if the centre has any links to sextortion rackets reported across the city recently.

“Based on a tip-off, we raided the call centre of Sea Link Media and Entertainment in Kanchpada locality on Monday and rescued several women,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police Sangram Nishandar. The man operating the centre has been identified as Brijesh Sharma, a resident of Dahisar. The police said he offered sex chat services in the range of Rs 270 to Rs 10,000.

DCP Nishandar said that customers had to register on the online application called ‘Chamet’, for which they paid through various digital platforms.

The police said Sharma is a graduate and used pseudo names (for instance, Sean Williams) during chats and video calls with women who worked for him.

The police are still ascertaining the actual number of people who registered themselves for these services. They are also probing if more people were involved in the racket. Meanwhile, Sharma has been booked under section 294 (punishment for obscene acts or words in public) of the Indian Penal Code.

Published on: Tuesday, August 30, 2022, 07:24 PM IST