In a massive crackdown against alleged prostitution, Cachar police have arrested 28 women working at two massage parlours (spa centres) in southern Assam's Silchar.
The police suspect a possible interstate human trafficking racket behind the operation.
Speaking to reporters, Additional Superintendent of Police (Crime), Cachar, Rajat Pal, said that police conducted raids at two massage parlours in the town on Thursday night and detained the women.
"We investigated and later arrested them after registering a case at Silchar Sadar Police Station. All of them were produced before a district court, and police sought their custodial remand," he said.
He said all of them have been arrested under Sections 318(4) (cheating), 296 (obscene acts in public places), 132 (assaulting or using criminal force against a public servant while discharging official duty), 270 (public nuisance) and 112(2) (petty organised crime) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Additionally, charges under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956, including Sections 3 (keeping or managing a brothel), 4 (living on the earnings of prostitution), 7 (prostitution in or near a public place) and 8 (soliciting for prostitution), have been invoked against them and the owners of the two spa centres.
He said the department was aware of alleged illegal activities in massage parlours in various parts of Silchar town and its outskirts, and a detailed probe was initiated following some recent arrests.
Pal said most of the arrested women are not from the locality, and police are not ruling out the possibility that many of them could themselves be victims of human trafficking.
"As per the documents they have shown us, many are from Jorhat, Sonitpur, Kamrup and surrounding areas, while two are from Dimapur in Nagaland. We are not ruling out the possibility of an interstate trafficking racket," Pal said.
