Ahmedabad Crime Branch busts illegal prostitution racket at spa in Bodakdev

The Ahmedabad Crime Branch’s Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) has busted an alleged prostitution racket being run under the cover of a spa centre in the Bodakdev area and arrested the owner, police officials said.

The raid was conducted on January 6, around 5 pm, at ‘The Wish Spa’, on the ground floor near Krishna Furniture, opposite SG Mall, Thaltej. The action followed specific intelligence received by the Crime Branch that certain spa centres in the city were facilitating prostitution in the name of body massage.

Police said the accused, Bhupendra Chotelal Rajput (30), a resident of Prahladnagar Garden, Ahmedabad, and a native of Aligarh district in Uttar Pradesh, had been running the spa for the past one-and-a-half years. He allegedly brought women from outside the city and employed them for prostitution, paying them ₹1,000 per customer, while arranging clients for financial gain.

Based on the tip-off, a team led by the AHTU laid a trap by deploying a dummy customer. The dummy customer was sent inside the spa to negotiate services. Police said that once a woman was offered for sexual services and payment was demanded, the raiding team moved in and searched the premises.

During the raid, police found five women inside the spa. Preliminary questioning revealed that they were allegedly being made to work from 11 am to 8 pm, six days a week, and were paid on a per-customer basis. Police said the spa had 12 rooms, including 10 massage rooms, a staff room and a waiting area, indicating organised operations.

Investigators also found evidence of digital payments, including Google Pay transactions, allegedly used to collect money from customers. A Hikvision DVR system, used for surveillance inside the spa, was seized as part of the investigation. No other incriminating or prohibited items were recovered during the search, police said.

“The owner managed staff attendance and financial transactions personally. The spa was being used as a front to run a brothel in violation of the law,” a Crime Branch official said.

Following the raid, an FIR was registered under sections of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act and under Section of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023.

Police said further investigation is under way to ascertain whether more people were involved in the racket, including agents or customers, and to verify the duration and scale of the illegal activities.