Hotel owner, wife booked in Odhav prostitution racket, police rescue 5 women

Ahmedabad Police on Wednesday night busted an alleged prostitution racket operating under the guise of a hotel on the Odhav SP Ring Road and booked a hotel owner and his wife under provisions of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act.

According to Odhav police, the raid was conducted at Hotel King Palace, located on the third floor of Crystal Avenue near Odhav SP Ring Road, following a tip-off that women from outside Gujarat were allegedly being brought to the hotel and forced into prostitution for financial gain.

Rajubhai Panchal, 57, and his wife Bobby Panchal, 39, both residents of Nikol have been booked under Sections of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act.

The complaint was filed by Police Sub-Inspector D I Patel of Odhav Police Station.

Officers received information around 6.20 pm on May 27 that prostitution activities were allegedly being run from the hotel. A dummy customer was sent to the premises with marked currency notes amounting to ₹2,000.

Police said the dummy customer allegedly approached the hotel management seeking a woman for sexual services. After the deal was allegedly finalised, the dummy customer alerted the raiding team, which then entered the premises and conducted searches of several rooms.

During the raid, police allegedly found multiple women and customers inside different hotel rooms. Officers said marked currency notes given to the dummy customer were recovered from the hotel counter.

Five women from West Bengal, Punjab and Kutch were found staying at the hotel. Police also detained a housekeeping staff member employed at the hotel.

Investigators alleged that the accused couple had been operating the prostitution racket by bringing women from outside the state and using the hotel premises for commercial sexual activities.

Police seized cash worth ₹4,100 and other material from the hotel premises as part of the investigation.

Officials said further investigation is under way to ascertain whether a larger trafficking network was involved and to identify other persons connected to the alleged racket.