Women lured with fake job offers, drugged & exploited

Time of India

a day ago

Hyderabad: What began as a promise of overseas jobs and quick money has unravelled into a chilling racket in the city, where young women were trapped with drugs, sexually exploited at parties, and stripped of savings in the guise of training and visa processing.
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Police officers said the women were given what are known as date-rape drugs, along with LSD, MDMA and cocaine.
The women told investigators they had no idea how many times they were assaulted or by how many men, as they often lost consciousness during the office parties
.
"I applied for a job after seeing an ad on a social networking site," said a 27-year-old from Nellore. "The job offered a 15,000 salary. Because I had no work experience, I paid 50,000 for training.
The businessman promised to send me to the US after working in Hyderabad for a year."
A mother of a three-year-old and separated from her husband, she said her employer persuaded her to change her 'lifestyle', undergo a complete makeover, and improve her 'networking skills' to survive in the US.
"During the week, we worked on what seemed to be legitimate IT-related projects. On weekends, we were regularly taken to parties at resorts.
They gave us tablets or something we could not identify on a piece of paper, ostensibly to avoid hangovers after drinking. Everything was hazy after that," the woman said.
"I thought I could trust this group as we all worked together. It was only after attending mandatory counselling for addicts that I realised the situation I was in," said the woman, who even attempted to die by suicide after she was caught and booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
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Other victims TOI spoke to said that the company operated out of a small apartment. "My friend referred me, so I believed the opportunity was genuine. At a party, they put a paper in my mouth. After that, I don't know what happened," she said.
With no work experience, many were looking for a shortcut to land jobs with a big firm in the US, even willing to forgo a salary and pay their employers to process the paperwork. Most came from humble backgrounds and were hoping to overcome their financial struggles.
"I believed I was working on a project for an MNC while in the company. A couple of months later, I was told that visa processing would cost lakhs. They offered to deduct from my salary, and I agreed, thinking I was already giving interviews to clients in the US," said a 22-year-old from the city. She added that she was introduced to party culture after joining the firm and later realised they were being made to use heavy drugs.