Where CWG means Call With Grace - Escort services at play in capital with eye on foreign guests

Don’t worry about delays, Mr Suresh Kalmadi. The games are already off the blocks for at least one group.

On the Internet now, CWG stands for “Call With Grace” in one of the many ads escort agencies have uploaded with an eye on some of the 90,000 foreigners expected to arrive in Delhi for the real CWG (Commonwealth Games).

Photos and profiles of the escorts — the ads promise college girls, airhostesses, supermodels, homemakers and celebrities — are posted along with a rate card and the cellphone number of a contact person.

“Hello gentlemen! My name is Alex, I am new to Delhi Escorts Team. I am a very sexy, beautiful escort. I am very open-minded, friendly and well-educated who offer the best girlfriend experiences. Hope to see you soon,” goes one ad. The charges: Rs 20,000 for two hours, Rs 30,000 for intimate encounters (three to four hours) and Rs 40,000 for the night. Reema, who claims to be a model, charges between Rs 40,000 and Rs 80,000.

“We have already sent letters to police informing them about it,” said an official of the Kalmadi-led Games organising committee, which is facing charges of corruption and delay in preparations.

A senior Delhi police officer confirmed that six such websites had come up in the past one-and-a-half months, apart from independent escorts offering their services. “It’s all about having good business sense,” he shrugged, adding that the police were too busy with security and other arrangements to bother with this.

It is not just the ads that are new, many of the girls, too, are. A member of an escort agency said they had brought in girls from Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta, Pune, Goa and Chandigarh for the Games.

“So many foreigners will be coming to Delhi and that’s why we have got escorts from other metros as well to meet the demand…. We are looking forward to making the most of the event,” he said, adding that several agencies had recruited new girls and trained them in etiquette and how to deal with foreigners.

The contact person of another agency, whose number was posted in an ad, promised high-profile escorts who are “all educated and speak fluent English. All of them belong to very good families”.

Speaking fluent English himself, the contact told this correspondent, who posed as a prospective client, over the phone: “Please give me the name of the escort you want to meet and also the address where you want her to go. It will be convenient if you book a room in (a five-star hotel). They prefer going to big hotels.”

Rajan Bhagat, a spokesperson for Delhi police, said a team was formed to crack down on such activity but was having trouble tracking down the offenders. “They have set up several websites but the server is outside India and that’s why it is very difficult to locate them,” he said, adding that wherever they had specific information, they were taking action.

Cyber crime expert Pawan Duggal said the police could act under “Section 67 of the Information Technology Act 2000, which says anything obscene (published or transmitted) which intends to corrupt the minds of those who are likely to see, read or hear it, is an offence”. The punishment could go up to three years in prison and a fine of Rs 5 lakh.

There is nothing obscene about the word escort. “But when they advertise to provide services where monetary transaction is involved, it becomes an offence,” said Duggal, who practises cyber law at the Supreme Court. “Lack of will on the part of the police is to be blamed as they are more focused on other serious crimes like murder and rape. This has helped the racket grow.”

A senior IPS officer shrugged off the escort service boom as “normal”.

“Keeping this in mind, the government is also installing condom-vending machines at the Games venues to make the Commonwealth Games safe. This also happened in South Africa during the football World Cup,” he said.