Bhubaneswar, April 15: Police busted a sex racket operating from a beauty parlour at Unit-III in Kharavela Nagar and rescued three women. Five persons were arrested in the raid.

Acting on a tip off, the police raided the salon and arrested the accused who have been identified as Mohammad Samim, Najid Khan, Rajkumar Sharma, Debashish Nanda and Chittaranjan. The first three are residents of Bihar, but are staying at Kharavela Nagar and the last two are from Bhubaneswar. The parlour's owner, however, managed to flee the spot.

Further investigation has revealed that one among the rescued women hails from Bihar. The parlour owner used to bring women from the neighbouring state and used to engage them in illegal sex trade.

"We are also conducting raids at other beauty parlours and guest houses in the area," said inspector in-charge of Kharavela Nagar police station, Sanjiv Satpathy.

The cops said despite arresting Sunil Meher, the kingpin of sex racket in the city, in February, sex rackets continue to thrive in the city. They are now operating from private accommodations taken on rent.

Sources said the pimps were using social networking platforms to send photographs of girls to the customers. "Once the clients places their choices, the pimps drop the girls at the residence and later pick them up from the spot," said a police official.

Apart from residential areas, most of these rackets are operating from beauty parlours and massage centres. A number of them have been busted especially in Cuttack.

Though officials said there were around 170 beauty parlours in the city, including 85 in Laxmisagar and Badagada police station areas, their actual number would be more than 500.

Keeping an eye on the flourishing trade in residential areas, the police have recently made it mandatory for landlords to register their tenants with the concerned police stations. They are required to submit the particulars of tenants such as permanent address, occupation, phone number, photo copy of identity proof such as passport, driving license, voter card, PAN card and ration card.