For the first time, the city police have arrested a woman for using the Internet to sell sexual services. The woman was picked up from a guest house in Jadavpur on Monday evening after an officer posed as a client. The sleuths also rounded up the guest house owner, a retired state government employee.

?This is the first time we have arrested a woman for soliciting clients on a website. We booked her under the Information and Technology Act,? said Rajeev Mishra, deputy commissioner of police (special), detective department.

Police came to know about the woman ? a housewife from Thakurpukur ? while investigating Net prostitution in the city. Metro had reported last week that police were planning to crack down on about 50 agencies that have listed names of men and women from the city as ?escorts?.

?The arrested woman used an assumed name on the Net and provided her photograph, her charges per hour and her cellphone number,? said Naseem Ali, officer-in-charge of detective department?s cyber crime wing. The woman, who said she was 27, added that she was ?selective?.

?She is smart and fluent in English and Hindi. After 10 days of phone calls, she agreed to spend an hour with one of our officers for Rs 1,720,? said deputy commissioner Mishra.

The officer reached the guest house on SC Mullick Road, owned by 65-year-old Hrishikesh Mukherjee, and arrested her as soon as she appeared.

?Since the Net announcement is illegal and evidence enough, we did not need other proof,? said Mishra.

Both the woman and Mukherjee were produced in Bankshal court and remanded in police custody till May 26. If proved guilty, the woman faces a prison term of up to five years.