The people arrested for allegedly being involved in a sex racket taken to Capital Hospital for medical tests. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, July 11: Seventeen persons, arrested yesterday for their alleged involvement in a sex racket, were sent to jail today after a local court rejected their bail pleas.

The accused included 10 men and seven women. Of the arrested, four persons were alleged to be pimps. They were Dillip Bihari, Sanjay Khatua, Siddarth and Priya Majumdar. All of them were sent to court after medical tests at Capital Hospital.

The police said the list of customers of the gang included an advocate from Jajpur, a film producer, four businessmen and a contractor. All the girls, who had been supplied by the pimps, were from Bengal.

Acting on a tip off, the police had conducted a raid last evening in the newly built Netaji Subhash apartments at Gadhakan on the outskirts of the city under the jurisdiction of Mancheswar police station. They first arrested Priya Majumdar, who allegedly ran the brothel and her co-accused — three alleged pimps — were arrested from another apartment. Subsequently, the girls and the customers were arrested.

Police commissioner B.K. Sharma said the accused were booked under the Immoral Trafficking Prevention (ITP) Act. “Moreover, we booked the female facilitator, Priya Majumdar, under Section 110 (punishment of abetment if the person abetted does act with different intention from that of the abettor) of the Indian Penal Code. She was arrested for the third time here. Earlier, she was arrested under the ITP Acts,” said the commissioner.

Sources said the alleged kingpin of all sex rackets, Sunil Meher, is absconding. Meher had reportedly been running the racket through his wife Priya and another pimp, Munna Pathan. Recently, Pathan was arrested by the Puri police for running a sex racket there.

Priya and other pimps had taken flats in the apartments on rent investing more than Rs 1 lakh. Moreover, they had brought the call girls from Bengal promising them Rs 5,000 per night.

The accused had purchased two cars to provide escort service to their customers and carry the girls from one place to another.

The police had busted several such rackets from various parts of the city with the recent being the arrest of eight women and two youths from Lumbini Vihar in Chandrasenharpur area on April 26. On April 6, two girls and two customers were arrested from Laxmi Sagar area on charges of flesh trade.

Talking about the increasing incidences of flesh trade, Sharma said the main accused persons were operating the trade through others. “The racket is thriving because of the demand and supply scenario. We would publish photographs of the customers, who were arrested in such cases. This would act as deterrent against people soliciting paid sex,” said Sharma.