The Commissionerate police are planning to declare 12 establishments raided for operating sex racket as ‘brothels’ in twin city Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.
Among the establishments, H2O Spa located at Bapuji Nagar in Bhubaneswar from where eight young girls belonging to Thailand were rescued and nine customers were arrested recently, would be declared as a brothel.
The police’s move is on the ground that the explanations made by the establishment owners were not satisfactory. The houses where the sex rackets were running would be declared brothels, informed a senior police official.
Earlier, the establishment owners had been asked to make their stand clear in a special court of the Commissionerate police after the sex rackets were busted in these houses.
Notably, the Commisionerate police busted 12 sex rackets in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar in the past one and a half years. While four houses were raided in Cuttack, police arrested the kingpins and pimps and rescued the sex workers during a series of raids at eight houses in various locations in Bhubaneswar during the period.
Source said the sex rackets were operating in knowledge of the house owners. While the sex workers in these rackets have been officially termed as prostitutes, the houses where the rackets were operating would be declared as brothels.
With declaration of the houses as brothels, the police would seal the premises for a period of one year under Section 18 (1) of the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, 1956 from the date of their actual attachment. During the period, the house owners would not be allowed to file petitions in any court. Besides, the public places like educational institutions, temples and clubs attached to the houses would be informed through a letter regarding the status of the houses.Earlier, seven establishments were declared closed by the police following the raids during the period from 2014 to 2016.
They included Hotel Nirmal Palace, Ashok Nagar; Hotel Janat Palace, Bapuji Nagar; Maitry Guest House, Maitri Vihar; Khusbu Beauty Parlour, Cuttack Road; One Star Beauty Parlour, Old Station Bazaar; a house at VSS Nagar (all in Bhubaneswar) and a house at Ranihat Chhak in Cuttack.