First Aadhaar, now UPI: Cops reveal the dark underbelly of human trafficking in Goa

The Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, has gained immense popularity in India, with over 10 billion transactions in the month of August. However, an unlikely usage of UPI was found recently by the Goa Police. As per the cops, they have uncovered an international sex racket in which clients were made to pay sex workers using UPI!

As per the cops, the racket was being remotely managed from Kenya. The modus operandi involved victimised sex workers providing clients with QR codes for payment, which were subsequently transferred in full to the human traffickers. Typically, the QR code or UPI payment was made at the outset of the transaction, ensuring that clients could not evade paying the victims later, reported the Times of India.

According to a report in the Times of India, two Kenyan nationals—Maria Dorcas, aged 28, and Wilkista Achitsa, aged 22—have been arrested in the case. Additionally, five Kenyan women who were victims of trafficking were rescued with the assistance of the NGO Arz. The police are currently in pursuit of a third suspect, who is of Nigerian nationality.


This sinister sex racket preyed on educated Kenyan women, luring them with promises of jobs in the hospitality industry. The traffickers, orchestrating this deception, handled all the documentation required for these women to come to India, including purchasing their tickets.

Interestingly, this is not the first time that pimps and traffickers have been found using tools that were intended to make lives simpler for a common man. Previously, pimps operating in Goa had mandated that clients produce their Aadhaar cards before the women were delivered to them. This was done both to verify the authenticity of the client and to evade law enforcement.

Detailing how the current racket operated, the police revealed, "Once the women arrived in Goa, their passports were confiscated by the traffickers under the guise of securing them employment. Refusal led to threats of assault and demands for payments ranging from Rs 5-8 lakh. The victims were released only after paying the traffickers Rs 5 lakh through prostitution."

As per cops, the traffickers had established a website, 'Massage Republic,' to connect with potential customers. "After the deal was struck between the customer and traffickers, the customer would meet the victim. Before proceeding, the victim was required to share a QR code with the customer. Upon payment, the entire sum was transferred to the traffickers' account," the report quoted Anjuna PI Prashal Dessai as saying.

The critical breakthrough in this case came when the women were taken to Bengaluru for prostitution, and one of Arz's partner NGOs obtained information about this inter-state trafficking, alerting authorities. Arz managed to locate a victim in Goa, assisting her in filing a complaint. Subsequently, Anjuna police swiftly acted, lodging a complaint and conducting a raid at the location in Anjuna where the victims and the mastermind behind the international sex racket were staying.