The racket was discovered in the densely populated Uttar Pradesh state after police chief Akhilesh Yadav was inundated with calls for help.
The selling price for the number of an “ordinary looking girl” fetches Rs 50.
Navneit Sekera, an inspector general of police who played a crucial role in setting up the helpline, says anonymity is key to the latest scourge plaguing tens of thousands of women in the state.
Local media in India are reporting that police are struggling with the issue because the callers are anonymous and often use untraceable SIM-cards.
Police have made no arrests, years after it came to light, and go after the shops instead of the cold-callers.
Out of the 6 lakh-odd complaints registered with the helpline in the past four years, 90% related to harassment of women on the phone.
A majority of the men – who seek to entice women with the preferred opening line ‘humain aapse dosti karna hai’ or ‘I want to make friendship with you’ – get the numbers from outlets where women go to recharge their mobile phones.However, on a whirlwind trip to Rome, she impulsively steals some coins from a reputed fountain of love, and is then aggressively pursued by a band of suitors.A romantically challenged morning show producer is reluctantly embroiled in a series of outrageous tests by her chauvinistic correspondent to prove his theories on relationships and help ...See full summary » While visiting his hometown during Christmas, a man comes face-to-face with his old high school crush whom he was best friends with -- a woman whose rejection of him turned him into a ferocious womanizer.Anna Brady plans to travel to Dublin, Ireland to propose marriage to her boyfriend Jeremy on Leap Day, because, according to Irish tradition, a man who receives a marriage proposal on a leap day must accept it.The probe, which began in April, found that Panipat, which in March seemed to have reached a sex ratio of 1000, had overshot the reality by 135, bringing the actual number to 872.