Mumbai,Mumbai Police have busted yet another sex racket involving foreign students and small time Bollywood actresses and models, with the arrest of two persons and the rescue of three young women, a top police official said here on Tuesday.
Acting on a tip-off, a team of the Social Service Branch (SSB) of Mumbai Police raided three-star Hotel Imperial Palace in Andheri east on Monday and arrested Navid S. Syed, 22, and Naved S. Akhtar, 26, said to be a casting director and production manager in Bollywood.
Police were looking for their absconding woman accomplice, said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Santosh Rastogi.
Three young women, including a model and two Turkmenistan nationals studying in a Pune college, were rescued.
The two foreigners had come in contact with Syed and Akhtar while visiting an advertisement shooting spot in Mumbai. Both men lured them into the racket with sham lucrative offers in Bollywood films, police said.
They also said that some foreign women were required for an ad shoot, but they would have to “compromise” for the assignment.
They were pushed into the flesh trade initially operating from a Versova flat owned by the absconding woman, where at least two other young women were forced into prostitution.
The police claimed Syed and Akhtar charged Rs 40,000 for each call girl from high-end customers, details of which are being investigated.
Rastogi said that it was the fourth sex racket busted this month, involving actresses, models and other girls connected with the glamour world.
On January 3, the SSB raided Zed Luxury Residency at Juhu and arrested casting director Rajeshkumar K. Lal, and rescued two women from Uzbekistan.
On January 14, the SSB busted another sex racket and rescued two junior artistes, besides arresting casting director Navinkumar P. Arya from Cafe Coffee Day in Versova.
On January 16, a raid at three-star Dragonfly Hotel in Andheri led to the arrest of an alleged pimp Priya Sharma and the rescue of a minor and two small-time actresses.
These sex rackets are suspected to involve prominent personalities in the film industry, glamour world and even corporates, besides other high-end customers in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata.
