Third Sex Racket Busted in JK, Days After Nowgam Incident

SRINAGAR: Days after a prostitution racket was busted at two locations in Srinagar – Nowgam and Bagh-e-Mehtab, another racket has been busted in the Jewel Chowk area of Jammu.

The racket was active in Jewel and adjoining areas of the city. Police have arrested six persons including managers of two hotels.

A minor from Bihar and a divorced woman from Srinagar were rescued while as three persons involved in this racket are absconding. The raid was conducted three days ago by the cops of Nowabad Police Station.

During the raid at Hotel Tourist Camp at Sant Market, Jewel, a man identified as Vidya Lal of Paddar, was caught in a compromising position with a teen-aged girl from Bihar.

The Hotel manager namely Bishan Dass and a pimp identified as Toshif of Rajouri were also arrested by the police.

However, another pimp namely Jamshed alias Sahil, who has seduced the teen-aged girl in prostitution and Akshay Kumar (resident of Jindrah), who had taken the hotel on a lease, were on large, an official told Kashmir Scroll.

On Saturday, the report said police raided another hotel ‘Richi Land’ in Sant Market after getting a complaint from a divorced lady belonging to Srinagar that she was tricked into coming here and being forced into prostitution, Nowabad Police raided the hotel and arrested three persons including hotel manager Tej Krishan of Jagti (Nagrota) and two pimps-Arif Hussain of Anantnag and Mohd Altaf of Handwara (Kupwara) and rescued the divorced lady.

However, hotel manager Satish Sharma of Akhnoor is absconding.

The report quoting police sources said several teams of Nawabad Police have been constituted to trace and arrest the absconding accused while police are also investigating whether other hotels or lodges in the area are also involved in these types of illegal activities as it was also a general complaint of the people of the area that several women are indulged in prostitution and they roam freely in the area to search for their customers.