To avoid cop raids, Orissa sex trade on wheels

The Orissa police was on Monday stunned to know that sex racketeers in Bhu-baneswar were servicing their clients in a completely new way —sex-on-wheels.

As many as 28 high-end luxury cars fitted with all modern amenities provide sex services to clients. This startling fact came to light after interrogation of a lady sex racket kingpin, who was arrested late Sunday night. Four girls — all hailing from West Bengal — were rescued and one customer was arrested during the raid on a sex-on-wheels vehicle. Besides, objectionable material were seized.

The 40-year-old kingpin named Manjulata told interrogators that customers preferred sex-on-wheels as “it is comparatively safe and involves less risk of police raids”.

As many as 28 air conditioned cars of different makes — most of them with tinted windows and black curtains separating the rear seats and the driver chamber — are providing services to clients in the city. The shift to this mode was because the traditional method of running the sex business in rented apartments and duplexes became a huge risk due to frequent raids by police officials, Manjulata reportedly said.

The kingpin, who hails from Jankia on the outskirts of the state capital, was earlier arrested on charge of running a sex racket at a rented house in Nayapali. She was recently released on bail.

Manjulata has over 50 girls, some of them from West Bengal and Bihar, in her network. The women providing sex services include unmarried girls, housewives and engineering students. In fact, one of the four girls rescued on Sunday while providing “sex-service” in a car at a lonely place in CRPF Square is a B.Tech engineering student.

Customers contacted Manjulata over the telephone or through social networking sites such as Facebook and WhatsApp and booked girls of their choice after which the price was fixed based on the beauty and educational qualification of the girl. The minimum price for availing sex-on-wheels service was Rs 2,000 per hour, she told her interrogators.

Since the commissionerate police maintains a tight vigil on major city streets and areas around important shopping malls, the drivers of the cars are asked to avoid these areas. Besides, they are also instructed not to venture into areas that are under CCTV surveillance. Areas like Chandrasekharpur, Patia, Puri-Cuttack bypass road, Railkunj and Chandaka are the places where sex-on-wheels vehicles provided “services” to clients.