Vijay Nagar’s opulent hotels are scrutinized by police for links to an online sex trafficking ring.

As a result of the Indore cell of the state cyber police uncovering evidence of online escort services operating in the city hotels for the past year, several luxury hotels operating in the city, especially those located in the Vijay Nagar area, are now under police scrutiny. Investigators are searching for digital evidence to determine if racketeers were conspiring with hotel employees to run their operations. On November 23, the police detained Harshal Jha, a 30-year-old BTech graduate and a key member of the racketas operation, bringing it to light. Sagar Jain, the kingpin of the prostitution ring in Indore, hired Jha to maintain the websites developed for the influx of online customers in the city.In order to get more information on the ongoing online prostitution in the city, cyber cell detained Sagar Jain and his brother Kapil Jain, who are lodged in district jail, for interrogations in the case. Sagar disclosed that in his absence, his sibling Hemant Jain is currently operating the scheme. They hired Jha, who then commissioned Chandigarh-based website developer Vikas alias Rahul Dutta to create three websites for online escort services. aWe have information that the ring has been involved in escort service and flesh trafficking for at least a year, so we cannot rule out the possibility that some hotels are facilitating prostitution to increase business, said cyber cell officials. One of the accused, Manoj Sharma, a resident of Pune, would arrange the sex workers’ flight reservations and their accommodations in luxury hotels in Indore. The customers would then visit the girls for Rs 10,000-15,000 per day.One of the officials also pointed to the possibility of hotel employees conniving with the racket by taking a hefty commission plus a large percentage of the money earned by the racket.Taking cognizance of the incident, the agency is also considering conducting surprise raids at the hotels under its radar, particularly luxury hotels in the area.