A group invited single men to 'wife swap' parties in a Chennai flat. Neighbours called the cops

The Chennai City Police on Monday, November 6, busted a prostitution racket, which had been running in the name of 'wife swapping' parties. The eight people who were arrested by the police, used advertisements on social media to lure 'single' men to these supposed parties, reported the Times of India.

What happened

• According to the report, these eight men had been actively organising these 'parties' for the past eight years in Chennai and the smaller cities of Tamil Nadu, including Coimbatore, Madurai, Salem and Erode.
• The police inquiry learnt that the arrested individuals: Senthil Kumar, Kumar, Chandramohan, Sankar, Velraj, Perarasan, Selvan and Venkatesh Kumar used to look for men and target them.
• They used to set those men to meet some women, disguising them as their wives and then encouraged them to swap their partners.
• The police also rescued some married women, all between 30 and 40 years of age.
• The women agreed to attend the 'swap parties' because of big money, the police informed.

The bust

• The police were informed about the ongoing racket by the neighbours after they saw many men coming to the house and indulging in overnight boozing and loud music.
• After getting the information, the police raided the house and found four middle-aged businessmen with women in separate rooms.
• It was followed by the arrest of a total of eight people, including the four men. The women were allowed to get back to their families after signing an undertaking, the report stated.
• The detained men were presented in front of a Magistrate the next day, Tuesday, November 7.
• According to the police, "The gang created a social media page on wife-swapping and lured the men by charging them anything from Rs 13,000 to Rs 25,000."
• "The more money they pay, the more women will accompany them at the beach house," the police added.

The Chennai bust brings back memories of one of the most controversial scandals from 2013 that shook the Indian Armed Forces, specifically the Indian Navy.

The Navy wife swap scandal

• Almost three years after the case was lodged by the victim, the Supreme Court in 2013 took interest a keen interest in the wife-swapping scandal that engulfed the Indian Navy.
• The case revolved around a naval officer's wife accusing a senior officer at INS Kochi of soliciting her husband for wife-swapping.
• When her husband declined, he was allegedly threatened by the senior.
• The victim even approached the senior official at the Kochi base but the pleas went unheard.
• Speaking on the scandal, the then-Defence Minister AK Antony vowed to take strong action, saying, "After inquiry, if anyone is found guilty, we take strong action and exemplary punishment is given."
• The Navy, for a long time, had to keep mum on the matter, which later reached the Supreme Court of India.
• The case dragged on for quite a few years and the Supreme Court, Kerala Police and the Ministry of Defence got involved in an awkward situation.
• The last known development came in 2016 when the apex court declined the victim's plea to transfer the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation and directed the setting up of a Special Investigation Team to look into it.