Crime News / Baleshwar Hotel Sex Racket Busted, Nine Held in Midnight Police Raid

Baleshwar, Oct 28: In a major crackdown on illegal activities, police busted an alleged sex racket operating from a hotel near National Highway-16 in Odisha's Baleshwar district and arrested nine persons, including three sex workers, five customers and a broker.

According to police, the operation was conducted late on Monday night at New Bulbul Hotel near Junbalada under Basta police station limits following reports that prostitution activities had been running from the premises for a long time.

Investigators suspect that the hotel owner, with the help of brokers, had been bringing women from outside the state and facilitating the illegal trade.

Also read: Baleshwar Family Alleges Police Inaction Over a Year After 3-Year-Old Girl's Rape

Acting on specific intelligence, a special team led by Basta SDPO Samarth Kumar Behera carried out a raid on the hotel.

During the operation, police detained three women allegedly involved in prostitution, five customers and a broker. All the accused were produced before a local court on Tuesday.

Police said the arrested broker is a resident of the Rasgovindpur area in Mayurbhanj district. Preliminary investigation revealed that some of the customers were from local areas, while others had reportedly come from Bhubaneswar and Jagatsinghpur.

As part of the investigation, police seized 11 mobile phones believed to be linked to the operation. Authorities are examining the devices to gather further evidence and identify possible links to a wider network.

The Baleshwar raid comes just days after police busted another alleged sex racket operating from a two-storey house under Jajpur Road police station limits in Jajpur district.

In that operation, three women, two customers and a broker were detained during a coordinated raid conducted by three police teams under the supervision of the Jajpur Road SDPO.