MAPUSA: In a "high profile" prostitution racket, police arrested seven persons including four customers in Calangute late Wednesday evening and sealed an entire floor of a Calangute guesthouse.
Police also rescued two Mumbai-based victim girls in the operation.
A Mapusa court later remanded the three accused to five days police custody and the customers were sent to 14 days judicial lockup.
Working on reliable information, police decided to lay a trap outside a guest house at Calangute on Wednesday evening.
The two victim girls along with the pimps walked into the trap when they came in a car and parked it outside the guesthouse. The three pimps including the driver escorted the girls to the hotel rooms, police informed.
The waiting police swooped on the three pimps while coming out of the guesthouse. The accused confessed that the girls were delivered to customers on the first floor of the guesthouse.
Police then raided the guesthouse and rescued the two girls and arrested the four customers, all from Kerala.
The two rescued girls were later lodged in the protective home in Merces.
Police sealed the entire first floor of the guest house, which was used for prostitution activities, for further investigation.
Calangute Police said it has begun the process of writing to the Calangute Panchayat for cancellation of the establishment and trade licence issued to the guesthouse and to the tourism department to revoke its tourism licence.
It was also revealed that the guesthouse was not maintaining proper records of the guests on the official register.
"It's a high profile case because each of the woman was charging Rs 30,000 and above," PI Jivba Dalvi told The Goan.
Police have attached an i20 car (GA-03-R-8057) along with cash of Rs 70,000 and 9 mobile phones recovered from the accused.
During the interrogation, it was found that one of the pimps, Santosh Kumar Kar was earlier twice arrested in trafficking cases in Calangute and Margao.
The arrested pimps were Santosh Kumar Kar from Odisha, Yaman Arora from Haryana and Rim Bahadur Oli from Nepal. The four customers - Jobin John, Sunny Thomas, Chackochan Joseph and Jos P Geo, all from Kerala, were also arrested in the crime.
Police have booked the three pimps under Sections 370, 370 (3) r/w 34 IPC and Sections 3, 4, 5 and 7 of Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act and the four customers under Section 5 of the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act. Further investigation is on.
-----------------------------------------------------------
TRAPPED in Calangute
* Two victim girls along with the pimps come in a car and park it outside the guesthouse
* The three pimps including the driver escort the girls to the hotel rooms
* The waiting police swoop on the three pimps while they are coming out of the guesthouse
* The accused confess to delivering girls to customers on the first floor of the guesthouse
* Police raid the guesthouse and rescue two girls and arrest four customers, all from Kerala
