Charges of forgery slapped on flesh trade accused

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 18

Even as the prime suspect, Ekam, alias Prince Kumar, in the high-profile sex racket case continues to evade arrest, the police have slapped charges of fraud and forgery on him.

The cyber cell arrested three persons, including a woman, a week ago, who reportedly had been supplying girls in various parts of Punjab and Delhi. Among those arrested include Sahil Khajuriya, alias Sahil, of Jammu and Jaspal Singh of Talwandi Bhangwan village. They used to collect payments and supply girls to the designated place.

Vavinder Mahajan, in-charge of the cyber cell, said Prince had got two mobile numbers issued on different identity cards. He had his voter card in the name of Sunny Sharma while he got his Aadhaar made in the name of Prince Kumar. Thereby, we added the sections of fraud and forgery against him in the case registered under Immoral Trafficking Act.

He said police parties were carrying out raids at his various hideouts. “He is still in Punjab and we are keeping a close watch on his movements. We will nab him soon,” he said.

The racket was busted after a hotel owner located in the walled city approached the police accusing Ekam of uploading his contact number for providing escort services, thereby hurting the image of his establishment.

It may be recalled that after failing to track him in initial stages, the police later changed its strategy and sent a cop as decoy customer. Ekam fell in the trap and sought details of the customer besides asking him to hire a room at a reputed hotel. A deal was struck at Rs 17,000 for several hours. The police called him at a reputed hotel on the main GT Road and gave the details of the cop who was posing as customer. Soon a car with two persons and a girl arrived at the scene. As the cop (posing as customer) gave the payment, a police team caught hold of them.