At least five women were arrested in the city and produced before court on Sunday on the charge to soliciting people for sex and later robbing them of cash and valuables.
A special team on the Kharavel Nagar police station nabbed the women from the Master Canteen area after getting a complaint from a person hailing from Boudh.
Sources said many cases were pending against the women at several police stations in the city and they had also earlier been arrested earlier for the same offence.
The sources said a gang of 10 people, including the five women, was running a racket.
Explaining their modus operandi, a police official said, “They stand near Master Canteen Square and along the Mahatma Gandhi Marg and IG Park and stop passersby, particularly bikers and walkers.”
“The women used to lure the victims on the pretext of soliciting sex and later their male supporters rob the victims of their cash and other belongings. If the victims protested, the women used to threaten them of falsely implicating them in rape and molestation charges,” the officer said.
The incidents came to light after a number of people were robbed and alerted the police authorities about it.
The police laid a trap on Sunday after getting a complaint from a person from Boudh district who was a victim in the hand of the women on Saturday evening.