One of the two parlours that Laxmi Sagar police raided in Bhubaneswar on Thursday evening. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, May 29: Police busted a sex racket that used to run in the disguise of beauty parlours at Laxmi Sagar this evening, arrested four persons and rescued 11 women from there.

Laxmi Sagar police police, along with the special squad, conducted the raid on two beauty parlours and a rented house located along Puri-Cuttack road in the city.

The police said they were getting complaints from the people in the neighbourhood about sex rackets being run in these beauty parlours, but they had no evidence earlier.

Acting on a tip-off, the police team conducted raids on the parlours, and there they got to know about the rented house that was also running the racket and arrested four.

The accused persons were identified as Dhiraj Mishra, 27, Anand Barik, 33, Akin Mallia, 28, and Sambhu Kumar, 29.

The last accused belonged to Bihar and he has been staying in the city for several years. The women rescued belong to the age group between 20 and 30 years and a few of them were working in the parlours while others were part of the sex racket. Sources said most of the rescued women were from Bengal.

“We have nabbed four persons, who were identified as customers during raids on these parlours and the rented house. We will send the accused persons and the rescued women to hospital for medical examination,” said zone IV assistant commissioner of police Akshaya Kumar Mishra.

The police are searching for the parlour owners and the landlord of the house who had rented it out to one of the accused persons.

The police had been under fire following complaints about sex rackets being conducted in these beauty parlours. In October last year, the cops raided on three parlours at Kharavela Nagar and Laxmi Sagar, rescued five girls and arrested 10 customers. Also, in March, a 22-year-old girl working at a beauty parlour at Saheed Nagar had committed suicide, and in her letter, she had mentioned that the parlour owner was forcing her to join a sex racket.

The area, where the three centres for sex racket were running, is located in a remote place and lies close to a slum. The police said the operators strategically had chosen the location to avoid any attention or suspicion. The customers used to be contacted over mobile phones.

“We have been getting complaints from local people of other areas as well. We are planning to begin a series of raids on various beauty parlours and suspicious houses,” said a police official.