Rajkot police directs hotels to stop hourly bookings for young couples

In a bid to curb the sexual exploitation of young women, Rajkot Zone-2 DCP has directed hotel operators at the A-Division police station to avoid offering hourly rooms to young couples.

Police instructed hotel operators to thoroughly question any suspicious people entering their premises and verify their documents before allotting rooms. It was discovered that underage girls were sometimes being registered using the Aadhaar cards of adult women.

To prevent this, police directed that if a minor girl has covered her face, the scarf or cloth must be removed and her face should be matched against her Aadhaar card. Moreover, if she is accompanied by a man, the hotel must immediately inform the police and not provide a room, to prevent serious crimes.

If the couples are local youths from Rajkot, hotels have been instructed to avoid giving them rooms even for one or two hours. Similarly, if a local resident asks for a room alone, hotels should refuse, to prevent potential suicide cases.

Every guest must be registered in the government’s Pathik software and also recorded in the hotel’s own register. Police further instructed hotels to install CCTV cameras on their premises and follow other safety measures.

Notably, some hotels rent out rooms to couples for just an hour or two, offering them temporary privacy. However, investigations have revealed that, in many instances, girl students and young women are lured into such arrangements and subjected to sexual exploitation within these rooms.

The names of such hotels have surfaced during the inquiries of sexual assaults.