Prostitution racket busted at ‘Oceanic Spa’ in Maninagar, manager held, 5 women rescued

The Ahmedabad Crime Branch’s Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) on Monday evening raided a spa in Maninagar that was allegedly running a prostitution racket under the guise of a body massage parlour. The police arrested the spa manager and rescued five women who had been brought in from other states.

The raid was carried out at Oceanic Spa, located on the third floor of Rajdeep Dream complex near Kankaria Lake of Maninagar, following a tip-off that the establishment was offering sexual services to customers in exchange for money.

Acting on the information, an officer of AHTU and a police team organised a decoy operation. A dummy customer was sent inside the spa with marked currency notes of ₹500 denominations to verify the information. The decoy was instructed to negotiate for sexual services and inform the police once an offer was made.

Within minutes of the decoy’s signal, the police team entered the spa and detained the manager, Rajesh Manishek Sheikh (32), a native of West Bengal, who was reportedly been running the establishment for three years. Upon questioning, Sheikh revealed that the spa was owned by Bhimsingh Kabir Nayak, a resident of Vashi in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra.

During the raid, the police found five women inside the premises, identified as residents of Ahmedabad, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Preliminary interrogation suggested that the women had been hired from outside the state and were allegedly paid ₹500 per customer by the manager. The women told police that they were made to work at the spa daily between 11 am and 10 pm.

The spa had eight small partitioned rooms—six used for massage services and two for storage—and was operating as a front for the prostitution business. Police seized ₹1,500 in marked notes and a Hikvision DVR used to record CCTV footage.

While Sheikh was taken into custody, efforts are underway to trace and arrest Bhimsingh Kabir Nayak, who is absconding. The rescued women have been sent for counselling and medical examination.