Sex racket operating in guise of 'spa service' busted; 6 held

Mumbai police Thursday said they have busted a major prostitution racket operating in luxury hotels and homes and arrested six persons in this connection.

The accused lured customers by offering a "spa at home" service, police said.

Unit-9 of the Mumbai Crime Branch raided a five-star hotel in suburban Andheri Monday and rescued three women who had been forced into prostitution, a police official said.

The police also arrested Rajnish Singh (35), owner of Rajnish Wellness Ltd, a company which was allegedly a front for a prostitution racket, the official said.

Besides Singh, five women, who worked at the company's office, were also arrested. The women allegedly took calls from prospective customers, he said.

The police also recovered Rs 4.70 lakh in cash during the raid.

The racket came to light when police started probing an advertisement in a tabloid which promised to provide "a spa at your home", said inspector Asha Korake of the Crime Branch who conducted the raid.

Rajnish Singh was allegedly running this racket for more than 10 months, Korake said.

After a police official contacted the mobile number in the advertisement, posing as a customer, three women were sent to a hotel in Andheri, following which the raid was conducted.

A court has remanded all six accused, arrested under the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act and section 370 of the IPC (trafficking of humans), in police custody till Saturday.