Gurugram Police bust alleged sex racket in a MG Road club, arrest four including 2 women
Police raided a club in JMD Arcade Mall at MG Road in Gurugram after sending two constables as decoys. Two women and two club staff are among those arrested.
The police on Wednesday arrested four people, including two women, from a nightclub at MG Road, in a midnight raid to crack down on alleged sex trade in the area.
Four teams of the Gurugram police from Sector 29 and the women’s police station, conducted a raid at ION club, one of the nightclubs on the ground floor in JMD Arcade Mall after sending two constables as decoy customers around 10:30 pm.
“We had sent two constables posing as customers at ION club on the ground floor of JMD Arcade Mall. They met the women who were standing near the dance floor and demanded ₹2,000. After agreeing on the deal, the decoys handed over two notes of ₹2000 denomination each to the dancers as payment,” police commissioner K K Rao said.
At 11 pm, the constables gave a signal through a missed call to the SHO, who was standing guard along with the police party near the entry gate. “We conducted the raid at the club and arrested the women and the manager who was involved in the sex trade. We also recovered ₹4,000 from the women, which were given to them by the decoy customers,” said Kuldeep Singh, deputy commissioner of police (east).
A case has been registered against the accused under the Immoral trafficking (Prevention) Act. The accused were identified as Rakesh Kumar and Pramod Kumar, both bouncers at the club, and the two women — natives of West Bengal who lived in a rented accommodation at Chakkarpur — police said.
This was the second of its kind raid at MG Road this month in which people have been arrested. On July 4, police had raided two pubs and arrested seven people, including the pub owners and two women. Following the action, most pub owners stopped allowing single entry to women after 9pm. Married couples were asked to show proof of marriage or their Aadhaar cards. The owners had told HT that they did so to keep the police away, leaving no scope for suspicion.
Police, however, said that illegal activities have allegedly continued at the pubs despite the crackdown.
“The women dancers arrested on Wednesday night had been working in the club for the last one year and they used to give a share of their daily earnings to the owner and manager,” said Singh.
The four accused were produced in the district court and granted bail, the police said.
Rao also wrote to the excise officials on Thursday, asking them to cancel the liquor licence of the club.
The club owner has alleged harassment by the police and said he has been operating the unit since 2010 and there has been no case or violation. “The police team came to check the club on Wednesday night and returned by 10:30pm. They again sent people and arrested the manager and bouncer. However, my club was vacant then and the two women arrested are not from the club. They were arrested from the main road and are not employed with us,” Rohit Garg, owner of the club, said.
Garg said they have requested the excise and taxation officials to look into the matter as the club owners pay heavy excise licence fee to operate and in view of the ongoing raids they will not be able to run their business.