Sex racket busted, operators held

Vadodara: In a raid at the MIG flats located in Karelibaug area on Saturday, the police arrested two men who were running a prostitution racket, while they freed five commercial sex workers, including one from Bangladesh, from the den.
Women’s helpline 181 Abhayam received information about the two accused, Vijay alias Bijendra alias Brajendra Gupta and Anna alias Emtij Sheikh, of bringing women from other cities to operate a prostitution racket in the city. Abhayam officials, along with cops from Karelibaug police station, raided the third floor apartment in the flats on Saturday afternoon and found the five workers along with the two accused.

According to police, Gupta had taken the apartment on rent around two months ago for residential purposes. Police said that the accused and the workers lived in the flat. “The women used to go out to different locations wherever customers called them,” said a police official. Of the four other women, two are from Kolkata, one is from Thane and the fourth is from Mumbai. Police said that the women from Thane and Mumbai had arrived in the city on Friday night.

Cops are now investigating the modus operandi of the two operators and how they called the women to the city and how they got their customers in touch with them. “We suspect Gupta to be involved in a similar crime in the past too and are investigating that angle,” said inspector R A Jadeja of Karelibaug police station. He added that while both accused claim to be from the city, Sheikh’s identity card mentions an Ahmedabad address.

A case under Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act has been registered against them.