Over 100 people have been apprehended by the Gujarat police as a raid was launched at 805 spas, massage parlours, and hotels. According to the government, the move came as a part of a state-wide drive against flesh trade. The crackdown was reportedly carried out under the instruction of Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi.
During his interaction with senior police officers via video conferencing, Sanghavi expressed the Gujarat government’s resolve to eradicate the flesh trade being run at hotels and in the guise of spa centres, said the release.
As per media reports, the raid encompassed 851 locations across the state on Thursday and 105 persons involved in “illegal” activities have been arrested, said the release, adding 103 FIRs (first information reports) have been registered.
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Following the arrests, police have initiated a process to cancel the licences of 27 spa centres and hotels for being involved in illegal activities, said the release. The crackdown will continue in the days to come, it said.
In Ahmedabad, police teams raided nearly 350 spa and massage parlours and booked nine centres for violating the city police commissioner’s notification regarding the submission of names, photos and contact details of the owners as well as employees, said Joint Commissioner of Police, city crime branch, Neeraj Badgujar.
To check if spa centres were providing prostitutes to their customers, police also sent some dummy customers to a few suspected centres, said Badgujar, adding that none of the spas covered during the drive was found to be running flesh trade.
