On the road from Khokhra Bridge to Vanijya Bhavan Circle, Vipul negotiates with the auto driver carrying a sex worker before fixing the deal at Rs 500



The reporter starts his motorcycle and follows the autorickshaw carrying the girl to a hotel in Raipur

Curious to know why bikers stood their aimlessly, Mirror conducted an investigation and was shocked to find that flesh trade flourished openly on the stretch — the anxious bike riders are customers, the rickshaw drivers are middlemen, and the passengers, sex workers. The going ‘rate’ is Rs 450, but if a customer is not good at ‘bargaining’ he will end up paying anything between Rs 700 and Rs 1,000.



HOTELS INVOLVED

Hand-in-glove with them are shady hotels dotting Raipur, Geeta Mandir and Amraiwadi that are always ready to facilitate a quickie for Rs 200 to 400. Even pedal rickshaw drivers on the stretch work as middlemen who, depending on ‘aap ka status’, will promptly take you to chawls in Narol, Jashodanagar, Premnagar and Sukhramnagar where prostitution is a flourishing business. These middlemen also assure you that there will be “no police ka lafda” because the men in uniform have been “taken care of”.



The reporter and the girl enter the reception area of Hotel Swagat. The girl asks the hotel staff for a room. The receptionist demanded Rs 400, while the girl was ready to pay Rs 300 The sex worker calls off the deal and gets back into the rickshaw after hotel staff refuses to slash the room rent

‘VERY GOOD SERVICE, SIR’

On Wednesday afternoon, Mirror reporters Vipul and Vijay parked their bikes near Anuvrat Circle where ‘customers’ in the age group of 18-45 years, waited for a ‘catch’. They got talking to one of them who couldn’t stop gloating about “great but expensive stuff” at Thaltej crossroads, Soni ni Chawl on the highway and Relief Road. They saw several police vehicles pass by, but none bothered to find out why many bikers had congregated there. Soon, an autorickshaw stopped and a middle-aged woman asked Vipul, “Do you want to come along?”





A pedal rickshaw driver-cum-pimp goes about looking for customers on the stretch The unkempt man tells our reporter he can arrange for girls who match his ‘status’

Seated beside her in the auto was a young girl with face covered. The reporter nodded in the affirmative. The woman said, “paanchso laagse (it will take Rs 500)”. In an attempt to convince her that he was a genuine customer, the Mirror staffer tried to bargain, saying the going rate was Rs 450. But the woman refused to budge. The auto driver, too, chipped in, “Give it, sir. Her service is very good.” The reporter agreed for Rs 500. The woman took Rs 100 in advance and asked him to follow them. He started his bike and began following the rickshaw carrying the two women. After about a kilometre, the rickshaw halted and the middle-aged woman got off while the girl remained seated.



The rickshaw then veered towards Raipur Big Bazaar and stopped outside Hotel Swagat. The girl got off the rickshaw and asked our reporter to follow her to the reception. Oblivious to her, Mirror photographer Sharad Kumar who was also following them on reporter Vijay’s bike, began clicking pictures. The girl asked the receptionist whether a room was available. He told her that a vacant room was unlikely and that he will have to crosscheck first. After making a call, he told her, “Yes, one room is vacant. Our rate is Rs 400.”



Agitated, the girl said, “I am not coming here for the first time. The last time I came here, I paid Rs 300.” But the receptionist told her the room rent had been hiked. It is mandatory for hotels to ask for identity cards of occupants and also jot down relevant details, but the staff at this hotel did not insist on them. Pointing at our reporter, the receptionist asked the girl, “Is this the guy?” She said, “Yes.” However, since the receptionist refused to slash the rent to Rs 300, the girl called off the deal, mumbling, “Toh pachhi maney shu malshe?



(What will I be left with?)” and returned the advance of Rs 100 to the reporter before getting into the same rickshaw. The reporter doubts that the hotel staff suspected something fishy after one of them happened to see Sharad taking pictures. He also caught the receptionist gesturing at the rickshaw driver as though warning him against something.



‘AAPKE TYPE KI MILEGI, SIR’

Later, our reporters rode down to Vanijya Bhavan road and parked his vehicle there. Several autos carrying sex workers passed by, but none stopped near them. They stood there for 15 minutes, but to no avail. So, they resumed his wait at another spot, half a kilometre ahead, in front of a parked pedal rickshaw. Two shabbilydressed men with unkempt hair — a short guy in his 50s and a tall guy in his 60s — were seated in the vehicle. Five minutes later, the 50- year-old pedal rickshaw driver, clad in an orange shirt, walked up to one of the reporters to enquire whether he was looking for something ‘khaas (special)’.



When the reporter nodded a yes, the man told him, “In that case, don’t wait for the autorickshaws. The girls who come in rickshaws are no match to your status. I will take you to a place where girls come in cars and take you along. There are girls from Bengal and Bihar. You will get any variety you want. You will never forget their service.” Asked to quote the rate, the man replied, “Rs 700”. When the reporter asked him to “adjust” a little, the man refused to do so and went back. After a while, he again approached the reporter and convinced him to accompany him to a chawl in Amraiwadi after assuring him “total value for money”.



He ‘convinces’ our reporter of ‘unforgettable service’ before hopping on to his bike. They reach Premnagar but the deal doesn’t work out

The short man hopped on to the reporter’s bike as they rode off to Premnagar chawl in Amraiwadi. He identified himself as Rakesh, a pedal rickshaw driver, who was forced to do “part-time pimping” to arrange money for his “sick brother”, the tall guy. He warned Vipul against girls who take customers to hotels in Raipur, saying, “After they get their payment, they call the cops who conduct a fake raid only to extort money from the customer. That is their commission.” At Premnagar chawl, Rakesh led the reporter to a first-floor house. A 35-year-old man opened the door and greeted Rakesh and asked him and the reporter to come in. He took them to another room where two women, aged 28 and 20 respectively, were seated. But the reporter told Rakesh that he did not “approve” of the women, and they left the house.



‘YOU DISCLOSED MY LOCATION TO AN UNWILLING CUSTOMER’

Next, Rakesh took the reporter to another chawl behind Sukhramnagar in Rakhial. He knocked on the door grill of a house. A man in his early 50s appeared and took a good look at our staffer and Rakesh before going back inside. He returned with a bunch of keys and unlocked the grills. He took the men to a dingy room, approximately 6ft X 3ft in dimension. It had two partitions so that the space could be converted into three small rooms.





The pimp says he needed money to buy medicines for ‘sick brother’ who was found riding a rickshaw

Three women were seated in the room, all in the age group of 25-30 years. When Mirror reporter asked him the rate, the pimp replied, “Rs 700”. The reporter haggled with him and asked him to bring it down to Rs 600. After a prolonged argument, the man relented. The reporter then told him that he needed Rs 100 to fill in petrol in his vehicle and could only offer Rs 500. Enraged, the man shouted at Rakesh: “You never negotiate properly. This is not how the business is done.” He called out to someone and asked that person to “deal with Rakesh properly”. He was furious that Rakesh had revealed the brothel’s location to an unwilling customer and thus putting him at risk.



As the incident threatened to spiral out of control, the reporter intervened and paid Rs 500 to the pimp, urging him to let Rakesh go. The matter was finally sorted out. The reporter then dropped Rakesh off at the same spot he had picked him up from, around 6 pm. “If you want to make good arrangements for a late night party with friends, you can tell me any time. Thank you for rescuing me from those goons,” he said. Around 6.30 pm, the reporters returned to the spot to find Rakesh’s “sick brother” pedalling away the rickshaw with Rakesh relaxing behind.