Bhubaneswar, July 10: Seventeen persons, including seven women, were arrested today when the police busted a sex racket in an apartment in Gadhakana area on the city outskirts.

The 10 clients arrested were mostly in their twenties. Most of them were engineering students and businessmen.

Main operator of the racket Priya Majumdar, wife of Sunil Meher, a habitual offender in sex-racket crime, was also arrested in the raid.

The police said they had received information about a sex racket going on in a nearly deserted block of the apartment consisting of more than 500 houses.

“Our teams conducted a raid at around 6pm in the evening and arrested 17 persons from different blocks of the apartment where hardly any house was found occupied,” said a police officer.

Most of the arrested women were in their twenties and hailed from Bengal.

Though most of the houses have been sold out, they are still left vacant, as people do not prefer to stay here. However, the local residents said they had not been aware of any of such activities going on in the apartment.

“We are busy in our works. As most of the houses here are not occupied, there is no chance to interact with anybody. After the police came and arrested these people we came to know about the incident,” said Arindham Rout, a student who resides in the nearby block. Initially, even the police could not find out where the racket was going on. “They even knocked at our doors,” said Rout. The security guards deployed at the apartment said very few people stayed here and they had never suspected anybody. “When the police raided the apartment, we came to know about the incident. The police also seized a car,” said a security guard.

The police said they had information that there were many people involved in the racket and they conducted raids till late night.

Earlier this year, police had busted sex rackets in Chandrasekharpur area and Laxmisagar area. A senior police officer said these kinds of rackets were going on in deserted areas in Chandrasekharpur and Infocity area. “Now they have targeted the Mancheswar area,” said the officer.

He said this time, Sunil Meher was not in the forefront, but his wife was handling the racket.

The commissionerate police this evening busted a sex racket in an apartment in Gadhakana area on the city outskirts by arresting 17 persons including seven women involved in the racket.

The 10 clients arrested were in mostly in their 20s. Most of them were engineering students and businessmen.

The main operator of the racket Priya Majumdar, the wife of Sunil Meher, a habitual offender in sex racket crime was also arrested in the raid.

According to police, they received information about a sex racket going on in a nearly deserted block of the apartment consisting up more than 500 houses.

“Our teams conducted a raid at around 6 pm in the evening and arrested 17 persons from different blocks of the apartment where hardly any house was found occupied,” said a police officer.

Most of the arrested women were in their 20s were and hailed from West Bengal.

The apartment was located on the city outskirts Though most of the houses have been sold out to people, they are still found vacant as people are not wiling to stay there.

According to the local residents, though they have been staying in that apartment they were not aware of any of such activities.

“We are busy in our work. As most of the houses here are not occupied there is no chance to interact with anybody. After the police came and arrested these people we came to know about the incident,” said Arindham Rout a student residing in the nearby block.

Police could not even find out initially where the racket was going on. “They even knocked our door and we were surprised to see them,” added Rout.

The security guards deployed at the apartment said that very few people stayed here and they did not get a chance to doubt any one. “When the police raided the apartment, we came to know about the incident. The police also seized a car,” said a security guard.

The police said that they had information that there were many people involved in the racket and they had been conducting raids till late night.

Earlier this year the commisionerate police had busted sex rackets in Chandrasekharpur area and Laxmisagar area. A senior police officer said that these kind of rackets were going on in deserted areas in Chandrasekharpur and infocity area. “Now they have targeted Mancheswar area,” said the officer.

He said that this time Sunil Meher was not in the fore front but his wife was handling the racket.