Flesh racket at Mumbai spas busted; 3 arrested, 17 women rescued

The raids were conducted by the Mumbai crime branch along with personnel from the local police stations concerned.

The police raided three body massage centres and spas in Vile Parle, Mulund and Borivli on Saturday, and arrested three people and rescued 17 women, including six Thai nationals. The police said the accused were running a prostitution racket under the guise of providing spa and body massage services.

The arrested accused were identified as Kaytan Joseph Rodriz, 28, manager of the massage centre in Vile Parle; Pawan Kumar Pandey, 26, manager of the spa in Mulund and Divya Sarveshlingam Sakhinetipalli, 39, owner of the spa in Borivli. (HT image)

The raids were conducted by the Mumbai crime branch along with personnel from the local police stations concerned.

The raids were conducted based on specific information. In all cases, the police deployed decoys to confirm the presence of a prostitution racket and recovered cash worth ₹1.68 lakh, several packets of condoms, registry books and diaries from the spa and massage centres.

The arrested accused were identified as Kaytan Joseph Rodriz, 28, manager of the massage centre in Vile Parle; Pawan Kumar Pandey, 26, manager of the spa in Mulund and Divya Sarveshlingam Sakhinetipalli, 39, owner of the spa in Borivli.

The first raid was conducted by officers of unit 9 of Mumbai crime branch at ‘The Thai Villa’ located in Vile Parle (East). “A decoy confirmed the presence of the racket. We raided the spa and found six Thai women inside,” said senior inspector Mahesh Desai of unit 9. The rescued women were on a tourist visa and came to Mumbai around a year ago, he said. While Rodrix, the manager, was arrested, the police are searching for owner Shuru Khan, one Sumit Singhania and others involved in running the racket. The police said the accused had been running the racket for more than a year.

The third raid was conducted by unit 11 of the crime branch at ‘Rigel Spa’ in Borivli (West). The spa’s owner was arrested and six women were rescued. “We recovered cash of ₹23,800 from the spa,” said a police officer. The accused and rescued women were handed over to the Borivli police station.