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The city police have tightened screws on 'dingy lodges', which allegedly permit prostitution surreptitiously, by making it mandatory for them to furnish the list of 'short stay' occupants with the nearest police station on a daily basis.
Conduct of impromptu raids on such lodges was placed on the agenda of the police during the customary crime review meeting on Thursday and in one such operation carried out in a lodge in Fort Station limits on Friday, a lodge owner and two solicitors were arrested.
These measures have come in the wake of the recent murder of a eunuch in a city lodge. The eunuch, Sudha, had checked into the lodge on Madurai Road, along with one Pandian during night hours and was found dead with multiple cut injuries next day morning. Two special teams formed to nab the culprit arrested Pandian subsequently, based on a complaint registered by the lodge owner.
Thereafter, it became clear to the city police that owners of 'low-level' lodges act hand-in-glove with the abetters of prostitution. But, since solicitors and customers usually fix the deal outside before checking into the lodges, there could be no ground for suspicion, unless the lodge owners themselves cooperate. Yet, a constant watch on 'short stay' occupancy, lasting a few hours, is expected to facilitate easy detection.
The city police believe that their latest initiatives would act as a deterrent to abetters of prostitution. 'Notices have been issued to such lodge owners to cooperate with the law enforcing machinery. In case of dereliction, they would be sternly dealt with,' said the Commissioner of Police, Sunil Kumar Singh.
The police plan is to act tough on such lodge owners, who persist in abetment of prostitution, in three stages. Initially, they would be arrested and remanded. Subsequently, the police authorities will prevail upon the Corporation Commissioner to cancel the licence for the particular lodges, and finally the accused will be detained under the Goondas Act.
Assuring that there is no organised prostitution racket in the city, the Commissioner observed that in most of the cases, the solicitors, picked up for operating during night hours in a few select points such as Chathiram Bus Stand and the Central Bus Stand, belonged to other districts.
Women police in 'mufti' have been deployed at such points to keep a tab on habitual offenders. The anti-vice squad, comprising an Inspector, a Sub-Inspector and 16 other personnel, receives assistance from the four All-Women Police Stations and the local police for checking the crime. The police say that they have been acting tough on the pimps too.
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