Nearly 1,500 women involved in sex trade on MG Road: Gurugram police commissioner

Increasing police raids on clubs after KK Rao took over as police commissioner on June 20 has also become a cause of concern for the dancers.

Gurugram Police commissioner KK Rao on Thursday said that at least 1,500 women are allegedly involved in sex trade that thrives surreptitiously on MG Road.

Following police raids at some clubs on Gurugram’s MG Road, most pub owners stopped allowing single entry to women after 9pm. (Yogendra Kumar/HT File Photo)

Police said over the last one month they have collected information about the women working at these bars and found out that most of them came from outside the city.

“We send officers as decoy customers to monitor the nature of activities that take place in these places. We have found that about 1,500 women, who come to work at the pubs on MG Road every night, are involved in immoral trafficking. I have witnessed how they try to solicit customers. I have also recorded these activities as video evidence,” said Rao.

Anil Kumar, assistant commissioner of police(DLF), said about 350 women involved are from the city and 1,150 women commute to and from Delhi.

The police on Wednesday arrested four people, including two dancers, from ION Club on MG Road for their alleged involvement in sex trade. It was the second raid this month. Earlier on July 4, the police had booked seven people, including two nightclub owners, from two malls on MG Road, Sahara Mall and MGF Mall, for their alleged involvement in sex trade.

“Women come to the bars only for dancing. The police claims of the clubs being involved in sex trade is not true. They are catching random women and trapping them. If the harassment continues, I will close down my business. I will shut the bar and hand over the keys to the police,” said Rohit Garg, owner of the ION Club, which was raided on Wednesday night.

Increasing police raids on clubs after Rao took over as police commissioner on June 20, has also become a cause of concern for the dancers. They fear that if the raids continue, they will be compelled to switch to odd jobs.

“I have a day job but I cannot depend on it entirely. I am not educated enough to switch to a well-paying one. Major share of my income goes to my family. My two younger brothers are still in school and are dependent on me. I could not send them money this month because of the police crackdown,” said a 26-year-old woman, who dances at a pub on MG Road.

She said she works at the pub in the night to make a few thousand rupees extra. “I earn between ₹2,000-Rs4,000 every night if I get a customer. The food and drinks are on the house. I only pay for the conveyance,” she said.