Keonjhar, Dec. 1: Barbil police today claimed to have unearthed a sex racket with the arrest of five persons, including two girls.

Acting on a tip-off, a police team raided an abandoned house in the town and arrested the five accused for their alleged involvement in the racket last night. The police have seized a Scorpio car, two motorcycles, three mobile phones and other items from the spot.

Sanjaya Kumar Singh, the kingpin of the racket, was among those arrested.

The arrested girls were in their twenties and hailed from Dumduma Phase IV Colony in Bhubaneswar. The others were identified as Prakash Kumar Khetri, 30, and Ganesh Singh, 29, both businessmen from New Market of Barbil town, police said.

The police said they had received information about a sex racket going on in an abandoned house in the mineral town.

“Acting on a tip-off we raided the abandoned house owned by Sanjaya Kumar Singh, 37, in Barbil town last night. During the raid we caught four persons, including two girls, in a compromising position. We also arrested the house owner who was also hiding there. The arrested persons have been sent for medical examination today and later they will be produced before the court,” said K.C. Parida, inspector-in-charge of Barbil police station.

“The house owner had been running the sex racket quite for a long time. He was earning a huge amount from his illegal activities. He used to procure girls not only from Bhubaneswar but also outside the state and got them engaged in the sex trade,” said B.R. Kerketa, sub-divisional police officer of Barbil.

The five were arrested under Section 3 (for allowing a premises to be used as a brothel), 4 (for living on the earnings from prostitution), 5 (procuring, inducing or taking persons for the sake of prostitution), 7 (prostitution in or in the vicinity of public place) and 8 (seducing or soliciting for the purpose of prostitution) of the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act.