Eleven persons, including five women, were arrested from an apartment in the Nehru Nagar area on Sunday for allegedly running a sex racket.

A team of Patliputra police conducted a raid at flat number 104 of Satyani Apartment and took six men and five women into custody.

Three of the women belonged to Raxaul, while two were from Calcutta, the police said. “The racket was going on in the flat for one-and a-half years,” a police officer said.

Those arrested under the Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act have been identified as Manoj Kumar (Muzaffarpur), Asutosh (Uttar Pradesh), Mahendra Kumar (Patna City), Rakesh Kumar (Saran) and Ram Niwas (Rohtas).

The sixth man who was arrested was identified as Dharmendra Kumar, a resident of Raxul in East Champaran district. The officer said Dharmendra had allegedly taken the flat on rent and was using it to run the racket.

Deputy superintendent of police (law and order) Vivekanand said Dharmendra had engaged the women in the illegal profession and used to charge anything between Rs 400 and Rs 500 from the customers. “Dharmendra, however, used to pay the women less than Rs 300 that he earned from each customer,” the officer added.

The police said five cellphones, among other objectionable articles, were found during the raid at the apartment in the Nehru Nagar area.

The police added that another raid was carried out in a house, used to run a similar racket, in the same area late on Saturday night but no one was arrested.