Star prostitution is a pan-India racket, say Babgakire police

A south Indian actress arrested for alleged flesh trade from a city hotel is suspected to be part of a nationwide sex racket, which has been active in the city for  several years.

Actress Yamuna was among seven women and two men arrested in a raid on a star hotel on Raja Rammohan Roy Road on Thursday.

City police commissioner Shankar M Bidari on Friday said his men had been monitoring the activities of the group  for three months, before conducting the raid on the hotel in Central Business District on Thursday. 

“We cannot reveal anything about the racket. We are quite certain, though, that it has a network spread across the country,” he said. The commissioner added the police were looking into all aspects of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act. The charges would be made in accordance with the provisions of the act. 

Yamuna, police said, was flown down to Bangalore on Thursday afternoon by Surakshith Suman, a native of Dehradun. The actress was offered Rs2 lakh for the ‘assignment.’

She was caught along with a software professional, Venugopal, who had checked into room no 1402 of the hotel late on Thursday evening. The raiding police party seized Rs2.5 lakh from the room. The other accused were arrested from different parts of the hotel.

Police sources said Suman had revealed that he had been running a large network, and that his women were all glamorous. Some of the actresses catered to top professionals.

The hotel authorities sought to downplay the police raid. Asked by media persons, they said that the heavy police presence was on account of  security reasons.