Lucknow: A total of 130 women have been rescued across 20 raids from various sex rackets disguised as massage services and spas between Jan 2023 and Feb 18 this year, police officials said.
According to commissioner of police Ajay Kumar Mishra, a total of 163 people, including 44 women, were arrested in these raids. “Police are working to rescue these women and teams have been formed for the same at every police station,” he said.
In the most recent raid, conducted on Tuesday, cops arrested four people for allegedly running a sex racket in Shalimar Garden. Three women were rescued in the raid, police said.
On Feb 5, police conducted raids at three spas in Indirapuram’s Niti Khand area that were suspected to be running. Across the three reaids, cops arrested a total of 17 people, including two people who were managers of the spas.
Among the 17 arrested, 11 were women who were later found to be victims of sex trafficking during the investigation. All charges were then dropped against the women and they were reunited with their families, cops said.
On May 25, 2023, cops raided multiple spa therapy centres operating out of Pacific Mall that were suspected to be running sex rackets. Cops arrested seven people, including two women. The in-charge of the local police chowki was also suspended for negligence at the time, cops said.
Following this, a team of 50 officers, headed by former ACP Bhaskar Verma, raided eight spa centres and took around 100 people, including 60 women, into custody. The arrests included 34 men who were customers at these centres.
58 women were found to be victims of trafficking and were later reunited with their families, cops said.
According to a senior police officer, most of the illegal work was reported from a spa centre in the Trans-Hindon area. During investigation, the women revealed that they had joined on to work at the spas but were coerced by the managers who had obtained objectionable photos and videos of them. The managers would then blackmail them into engaging in sex work, the women told cops. Cops had arrested the spa’s managers and owners.
