Two arrested customers and owner (in red shirt) of the parlour. (below) The arrested girls. Picture by Amulya Pati

Jajpur, Sept. 24: Five persons were arrested today for allegedly running a sex racket at Kuakhia in Jajpur district.

Acting on a tip-off, the police raided a beauty parlour at Biju Gramin Bazar in Kuakhia and arrested four youths, who were allegedly found in a compromising position.

Parlour owner Pradeep Kumar Sahu of Chandipur village was also taken into custody.

“On receiving information that the parlour was being used for immoral purposes, we decided to raid the spot on Thursday night,” said inspector in-charge of Kuakhia police station Atul Krishna Dash. The police recovered contraceptive pills, condoms, sex-enhancing drugs, cash and three mobile phones from the parlour.

Mayadhar Sahu (25) of Rasulpur village and Sukanta Bhoi (30) of Badamuktapasi in Kamakhyanagar were arrested along with the two girls who had been working at the parlour for the past few months. The girls are in their twenties.

Dash said Pradeep had built three cabins inside the parlour to run the racket. The beauty parlour was a facade and the owner’s dealt in prostitution. The girls used to charge anything between Rs 300 and Rs 500. Probe revealed that the sex racket had been running for the last two years.

“We had been trying to unearth the racket for a long time. In the evening hours, the main shutter was always found locked from outside. Now, we have learnt that once customers went inside, the parlour staff would lock the main shutter from outside,” the police officer said.

Jajpur superintendent of police D.S. Kuttey said the raid was a warning to all those who ran illegal businesses and immoral activities in the guise of beauty parlours or cyber cafés. “I have asked all police stations in the district to keep an eye on cyber cafes, beauty and massage parlours. They have been told to conduct raid if the premises are being misused by the owners,” said Kuttey.

The girls were taken to the district hospital in Jajpur for medical check-up and later produced in court.