Phagwara: Police remand of sex racket suspects extended by 2 days

Advertisement

Phagwara, February 5

Though the police have arrested 26 boys and girls, including nine foreign nationals (eight from Thailand and one from Africa) following charges of involvement in flesh trade, both PG owners who were providing rooms and were running the racket are still reported to be at large.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Kapurthala, Vatsalya Gupta on Monday said that the police are investigating the racket. The SSP said that the police got a tip-off about the sex racket being run and cops in plain clothes were deputed to keep watch on such activities. The SSP said more than 30 policemen carried out raids at both centres. It was learnt that the PG/spa centre owners were meeting the demands of their clients and charging money for it. The booking was being done through WhatsApp and offline also.

SSP Vatsalya Gupta and SP Phagwara Roopinder Kaur Bhatti said that the intermediaries were earning much more. SP Roopinder Kaur Bhatti said that the police have registered two different FIRs in the case. In the first instance, on the complaint of SHO Satnampura, Jatinder Kumar, the police registered a case under Section 3,4, 5,7 and 8 of Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act and Section 14 of Foreigners Act against 11 persons including PG owner Lalit Prashar (not arrested), a resident of village Phurwala near Bilga who was running the racket near Law Gate, Miherru. The other 10 accused arrested by the cops were identified as Ajay Kumar of village Phurwala, Jyoti of Kalanaur, Vivek Kumar of Jalandhar, Harpreet Kaur of Ludhiana, Dharampreet of Nurmahal, Neeraja of Jagraon, Kamal Bhatia of Bilga, Manjot of Ludhiana, Waaj of Miherru and NShimirimana of Burundi. The police also recovered 11 mobile phones and Rs 21,000 in cash from their possession.

SP Bhatti said that in the second case, on a complaint lodged by SHO City Gaurav Dhir, the police have arrested 15 persons including the PG owner under Section 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 of Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act and Foreigners Act. The arrested accused were identified as mission and spa owner Deepak Behal (Amritsar), Jaspal Singh (Jalandhar), Shankar Arora (Phagwara), Sukhdip Singh (Amloh), Prabhjot Singh (Jalandhar), Beant Singh (Chak Hakim-Phagwara), Ankit Gupta (Jalandhar) and eight foreign nationals including Suchitra, Velasine, Avarin, Rungtiwa, Ratanphoron, Nipaporn and Jenjira (all Thai nationals). All arrested accused who were sent to police remand of one day on Sunday were again produced before a judicial magistrate in Phagwara today who sent them to police remand for two more days for further interrogation to expose the international racket. It was reliably learnt that the cops are trying to recover the passports of all foreign nationals involved to inquire about their activities.