BHUBANESWAR: Police Commissionerate of the Twin City on Tuesday busted a racket, which used call girls to lure customers and later loot them, and arrested six men and four women from Mancheswar.
Police also seized `47,000 in cash, a gold chain weighing 20 grams, three cars, two motorcycles and 12 mobile phones from the accused.
The arrested are Bramhanand Padhi and Sivanand Das of Polasara in Ganjam district, Prasanjit Mohanty and Jivananda Das of Balinata, Ranjan Nayak of Naharkanta and Biswaranjan Das.
Three women are natives of Kolkata while one is from Patna. They are all in their early twenties and were lured into the trade by Padhi six months back. The accused trapped men by contacting them on social networking websites and mobile phones. Padhi happens to be the kingpin who used to arrange young women for running the racket and plotted the robberies.
Police were tipped off about the racket by a Kalahandi-based businessman Pranab Goyal who was lured by the gang and looted near Hanspal on Sunday. He had lodged a complaint with Mancheswar police in this connection.
The accused were booked under Section 395 of the IPC and produced in a local court.
In a similar incident on Sunday night, a bank manager was robbed in a similar fashion near Jankia on the outskirts of the city. Police are verifying the involvement of Padhi’s gang in this case, Commissioner Dr RP Sharma said.