Police take away persons involved in flesh trade in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati our correspondent

Bhubaneswar, May 3: City police last night raided a house in Prachi Vihar area of Chandrashekharpur and arrested a young man and a girl for their alleged involvement in flesh trade.

The youth was identified as 23-year-old Rajen Kumar Singh, a resident of Jharkhand, while the girl hails from Cuttack. Police sources said the girl, in her twenties, had taken the house on rent 20 days ago and was running her trade from there.

Local residents, who often saw vehicles parked outside the house, had become suspicious about activities that were going on in the house and informed police yesterday.

“Last night, residents of the locality informed us about the matter. Acting on the tip-off, we raided the house and arrested the man and the girl,” said a police officer. The police also seized some blue film CDs from the house.

Chandrasekharpur police registered a case against them and booked them under sections 3 (for keeping brothel), 4 (for living on the earning of prostitution), 5 (procuring, inducing or taking persons for the sake of prostitution), 7 (prostitution in or in the proximity of public place), and 8 (seducing or soliciting for the purpose of prostitution) of the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act, 1956.

They were sent to the jail as the court rejected their bail pleas.

Police said they were investigating into the matter to find out if more people were involved in the racket. This is the second sex racket busted in Chandrasekharpur area within a week and third such incident to come to light in city in the last one month.

On April 26, Chandrasekharpur police had busted a sex racket from Lumbini Vihar area and arrested eight women and two men from a house.

According to a police officer, most of the houses in Chandrasekharpur and Infocity area lay vacant as their owners do not stay there. The owners rent these houses to people without enquiring properly about the tenants. Those running sex trade in the city take these houses on rent offering hefty amount to the owners.

“The house, from where police busted sex racket last week, was rented for around Rs 40,000. In that case too, the house owner was not staying in the city,” said a senior police officer.

Besides, growing number of beauty parlours are also contributing to sex trade in the city. On April 5, Laxmi Sagar police had busted a sex racket from a beauty parlour in Chintamaniswar area in which four persons including two girls were arrested.