The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Sex racket busted in city resort

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 13, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Sex racket busted in city resort

By Our Staff Reporter

Policemen stand guard over Epicurus Resorts on the city outskirts on Sunday.

HYDERABAD, SEPT. 12. A sex racket being run in Epicurus Resorts at Nanakramguda on the city outskirts was busted by the Cyberabad police with the arrest of 65 persons, including nine women dancers and 21 sex workers, after midnight on Saturday.

Eleven luxury cars and four motorbikes belonging to the clients caught at the air-conditioned dance floor and the adjoining 20-room building were seized, the Cyberabad DCP (law and order), Mahesh M. Bhagawath, said.

While Kumar, an aide of the racket's alleged operator, M.S. Nagaraju of Banjara Hills, was taken into custody, the latter is absconding.

Well-to-do clients

The police learnt that most of the clients caught during the midnight raid that continued till the early hours of Sunday were from well-to-do families. Nagaraju was organising obscene dances by flying in girls from Delhi, Kolkata, Pune and Mumbai. He had hired the resort premises consisting of three buildings and a huge swimming pool. One of the buildings had more than 20 well-furnished rooms. Nagaraju was charged with renting out rooms to prostitutes at Rs. 1,000 each per day. Most of the prostitutes were from towns like Guntur and Vijayawada and would book the rooms through a network of mediators. "For some reason, Nagaraju was operating this racket only on Saturdays," Mr. Bhagawat said.

Obscene dances

When the 30-member police contingent swooped down on the resort premises, 21 men were found consuming liquor and watching dances being performed by 10 semi-nude girls.

"It was a huge air-conditioned hall akin to a cabaret dance floor with modern lighting and music systems," the Rajendranagar ACP, B. Narsimhulu, explained. Subsequent inspection on the adjoining building brought the sex racket to the fore.

Twenty-five men, along with 21 sex workers were picked up from the rooms.

Liquor and food was being served both at the dance floor and in the rooms for which Nagaraju was collecting additional charges. Police seized ten mobile phones from the prostitutes and launched a hunt for the middlemen involved in the racket.

`No police lapses'

Cases under section 7 (2) of A.P. Objectionable Performances Prohibition Act and section 34 (a) of A.P. Excise Act, sections 3, 4, 57 and 8 of Immoral Traffic Prevention Act and section 294 (performing obscene acts) of IPC were booked against the accused.

The Cyberabad Police Commissioner, M. Mahender Reddy, ruled out lapses on the part of Rayadurgam police in keeping a tab on such illegal activities in their jurisdiction saying they were waiting for right time to raid the resorts.

Charged earlier too

Nagaraju was president of A.P. Hotel Owners Association and arrested a year ago by the then probationer DSP Sumathi on charges of organising a brothel in the same resorts, the Rayadurgam Inspector, R. Sudarshan, said.

Almost all the clients arrested were from the city except for a few who reportedly came to attend the `garment exhibition' in the city.

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