Bhubaneswar, Oct. 6: Police have busted a sex racket operating from a posh apartment at Khandagiri and arrested four persons, including two engineering students, and rescued two women.

Investigation revealed that the kingpin of the racket, Uttam Behera, who is also in cop net, had taken the apartment on a monthly rent of Rs 15,000 and had been running flesh trade there for the past one month.

The police said Behera had allegedly forced both the women aged around 35 years into prostitution. They are from Jharpada and Kanika Chhak in Cuttack.

A police officer said a series of raids on the beauty parlours and massage centres had forced the pimps to switch over to residential buildings to operate the trade.

They often target houses where the owners are not staying.

The pimp keeps the woman posing to be her husband. "They contact the customers over phone and the customers generally visit these places, identifying themselves as the women's relatives," he said.

The police officer said the pimps preferred newly constructed houses in the isolated areas.

"Most of these houses don't have any immediate neighbours, as a result of which customers freely visit the houses without any suspicion," said a police official.

Police statistics reveal that in 2014, 18 cases were registered under the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act.

Altogether 46 people were arrested and 52 women were rescued.

Till the end of September this year, the police registered around 30 cases and rescued around 100 victims.

Keeping an eye on the flourishing sex rackets in the residential areas, the police had earlier made it mandatory for landlords to register their tenants with police stations concerned.

The form, which could be downloaded from the website of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar police - www.bhubaneswarcuttackpolice.gov.in - required signatures of both the landlord and the tenant, along with particulars such as permanent address, occupation of the tenant, phone numbers of both of them and photocopy of the tenant's identity proof such as passport, driving licence, voter card, PAN card and ration card.

Deputy commissioner of police Satyabrata Bhoi said the drive against sex rackets would be intensified.

"We are also encouraging the members of housing societies to bring such suspicious activities to our notice through police public interfaces," said Bhoi.