Surat Police Bust Sex Trafficking Racket, Use Google Translate for Thai Victims’ Statements

Surat | Gujarat — Police have dismantled a significant sex trafficking operation at Hotel Home Town, located near Sarthana Seemada Naka in Surat.  During this operation, law enforcement apprehended three foreign females.  Featuring two from Thailand and one from Uganda.  However, the language barrier posed a challenge for the Thai girls, making it difficult to gather legal statements.  In a groundbreaking move, the Surat police utilized Google Translate software for the first time to tackle this issue, marking a distinctive element of the case.

The girls arrived in India on business-tourist visas.

The inquiry uncovered that these three girls arrived in India using business and tourist visas.  In contrast, the two girls from Thailand arrived via agents, whereas the Ugandan girl made her way to Surat from Delhi just a few days prior.  The police have taken action by relocating the three girls to a women’s shelter and initiating their deportation process.

Introducing Surat Police’s groundbreaking and innovative high-tech solution for the first time.

The primary challenge in this investigation was the language barrier, as neither of the Thai girls could speak or read English, Gujarati, or Hindi.  A challenge arose in obtaining legal statements due to the immediate unavailability of an interpreter fluent in Thai.  In a groundbreaking move, Surat Police implemented an innovative and high-tech solution to tackle this issue for the very first time.  They opted to utilize Google Translate software for assistance.

Translation of statements between English and Thai languages

The police successfully conducted the entire statement-taking process using Google Translate.  The police initially translated the questions for the girls into English, then utilized Google Translate to convert them into Thai, providing the girls with the translated text to read.  The girls crafted their statements in Thai.  The police once more had these responses translated into English using Google Translate.  The police meticulously documented all the details and crafted the official statements of the girls in Gujarati, following this English translation.

The manager previously extended invitations exclusively to familiar customers at the hotel.

The inquiry also uncovered the operational methods behind this sex racket.  The Thai girls previously resided in a rented house in the Magdalla area, traveling to the hotel by rickshaw during the day.  Concealed within the room tucked away behind the manager’s office in the hotel.  The manager would extend invitations exclusively to familiar customers with whom he had engaged in conversation on WhatsApp.  Upon collecting the customers’ Aadhaar cards, they were assigned rental rooms, and the foreign girls were directed to those accommodations.

The Sarthana police are delving deeper into this investigation.

Customers incurred a charge of Rs. 6,000 for this service.  The foreign girls received between Rs. 2500 and Rs. 3000 for each customer.  This incident serves as a clear illustration of unlawful behavior, while also showcasing the innovative application of technology by law enforcement to bridge the language gap.  The Sarthana police are delving deeper into this crime investigation.