Sex racket busted in Keonjhar; six held

Keonjhar: The district police in Keonjhar Monday busted a sex racket operating from a three-storied building at Gobindpur village under Town police limits as it arrested six persons including a woman and rescued five other women.

The accused have been identified as Banarani Barik, Firoz Ahmed and Manoj Behera of Joda, Abhishek Behera of Naranpur village, and Pankaj Nayak and Narayan Mohapatra of Turumunga area. Out of the six, one was the house owner, two were pimps, and the other three were customers, the police said.

During the raid, a woman from Jharkhand, two women from Baripada, and one each from Balasore and Jagatsinghpur districts were also rescued by the police. Two bikes and various objectionable materials were seized from the house too.

Police recorded the statements of the rescued women and conducted a medical examination on them as well as on the accused persons after registration of a case. Later, the accused were produced in the court and remanded to judicial custody after the magistrate rejected their bail pleas, Town police IIC Srikant Sahu said.

Police said that the breakthrough came after a tip-off alerted them about a sex racket operating from the three-storied building at Gobindpur village under Town police limits. Police revealed that Banarani was the queen bee and was arrested a few years ago on the same charge from a rented house in Keonjhar town.

Later, she constructed a three-storied building at Gobindpur village and continued bringing women from outside and engaging them in sex work. Residents have demanded police to intensify its raids as such illegal activities are being reported from residential houses and hotels in the town.

Further investigations are underway, the IIC said.

PNN

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