Ghaziabad police arrested 11 people and rescued 20 women after raiding three spa centres operating from the same building in Vaishali’s Kaushambi police station area on Monday night, according to Live Hindustan. Police have also begun examining the role of local police personnel and are searching for the owner of one of the centres, who remains absconding.
The raid was conducted by Rीजुल, deputy commissioner of police for the Trans Hindon area, along with a police team. The three centres—Pure Therapy Spa Centre, All Spa Centre and Mountain Spa Centre—were operating from Lajwanti Plaza in Vaishali. Police said the establishments were allegedly being used to facilitate prostitution under the cover of spa services.
According to the report, people at the premises attempted to flee when the police team arrived, but were stopped and detained. Police said they recovered objectionable material during searches of the centres. The 11 arrested people include operators, staff and others identified by the police as being connected with the establishments.
The arrested men were identified as Gaurav Jain of Delhi’s Gandhi Nagar, Nilesh of Khoda Colony, Narayan Singh of Saraswati Vihar, Tejendra Giri of Motihari in Bihar, Anshu of Bhovapur, Sachin Jain of Delhi’s Gandhi Nagar, Ankit of Makanpur, Faheem of Vaishali, Sahil of Kala Patthar Road, Mukesh Garg of Rajendra Nagar and Sumeer Nayyar of Krishna Apra Society in Indirapuram. Police identified Anshu as the operator of Pure Spa Centre and Sahil as the operator of Mountain Spa Centre.
Police said their preliminary investigation indicated that women were allegedly brought to the centres on the promise of jobs. The report states that the women were then allegedly induced, pressured or blackmailed into providing sexual services. Police further said that accused persons sent photographs and videos of women to prospective customers on WhatsApp, shared the location after a deal was finalised and paid the women only 25 to 30 per cent of the amount collected from customers.
The owner of All Spa Centre, identified as Meena alias Veena, is absconding and is being traced, according to the police. The investigation will also examine who rented out the premises and whether the property owners had knowledge of the activities being conducted there. Police said the landlords would be questioned.
The raid has also prompted scrutiny of the local police chain. The deputy commissioner had suspended two police post in-charges and two other police personnel the previous week after two hookah bars were found operating in the area. The report says the relevant police post in-charge, beat police officer and other personnel are now being investigated in connection with the spa-centre case.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Rीजुल said further action would be taken on the basis of the investigation. The immediate official steps are to trace the absconding centre owner, question the premises’ owners and determine the responsibility of the arrested individuals and any police personnel found to have failed in their duties.
