Sex racket busted in Odisha capital; five including 2 pimps arrested

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Feb 21:

The Twin City Commissionerate police busted a sex racket last night running in Odisha capital following a surprise raid on a rented house under Kalinga Nagar area here.

 

According to police, Quick Action Team (QAT) had a tip-off that a sex racket was being operated in a three-story building in Kalinganagar area here.

QAT and Khandagiri police launched a joint operation yesterday in the morning and spread net to bust the racket red-handed with customers.

Policemen had kept a vigil eye on the building since morning disguised in civil dress.

Around 7 pm last night, four persons entered into the suspected building following which police conducted a surprise raid and nabbed 13 persons including the four.

Police rescued eight sex workers and arrested a woman along with four male accused – two pimps and two customers– in the raid with seizure of two bikes and many objectionable articles.

Among the eight sex workers, seven were Bengali girls and one was Odia girl. They have been shifted to a short stay home.

The rescued girls were handed over to their families today after medical examination and the arrested were forwarded to court, said a police official.

However, police failed to nab the king-pin, identified as Debasish Choudhury, who had been operating the flesh trade since last two months.

Among the five arrested, the married Bengali woman was later identified as the lady king-pin of the flesh trade racket, who has confessed to her crime of bringing Bengali sex workers from Kolkata to Bhubaneswar.

Modus operandi of the racket

Police revealed that Debasish had taken the building on rent around a month ago. He had a good relation with some pimps in Kolkata and used to hire sex workers on monthly contract to Bhubaneswar paying commission to Kolkata-based pimps.

Once the sex workers arrived in Odisha capital, the pimps were paid their share and Debasish was managing all thereafter.

He also had engaged some local pimps here on a commission basis to pull customers.

However, he was keeping himself away from the building to avoid any untoward situation and public attention.

They were also into online promotion of the flesh trade by putting some contact numbers on the internet.

Getting phone call, the pimps used to call the customer either to a secluded place or a hospital premise in order to examine whether he was a policeman or not to avoid trouble.

Once the deal was struck, the customer had to pay the full amount and was not allowed to drive his own vehicle as the pimps used to take customers on their bike to the building.

Commissionerate Police on getting to know about the modus operandi, a police official acting as a decoy contacted the pimps who failed to identify him and police succeeded to bust the racket.