Ghaziabad, Aug 11 (IANS): Ghaziabad police, who claimed to have busted a sex racket, were left red-faced after being able to book only eight of the 112 young men and women they pulled out of a hotel.

Fifty-six adult couples were detained late Saturday for engaging in what was termed a sex racket, operating out of a hotel that fell under the jurisdiction of the Bajaria police post.

Aam Aadmi Party activists staged a protest near the police post close to midnight Saturday, protesting against what they said an infringement of privacy. Police forced them to disperse.

Later, the senior superintendent of police suspended two policemen and sent one constable to the police lines over the fiasco.

Of the 112 detained, four couples and a hotel receptionist were charged under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act.

Fifty two couples found themselves humiliated by the police action for doing nothing illegal. Some pleaded that they should be allowed to go home but their cries were ignored.

One elderly man said police had detained his kin, a married couple.

Superintendent of Police (City) Shiv Shankar Yadav admitted that when the couples were screened, it was found that 52 of them were either married or friends.

Vineet Sharma, president of NGO Social Awareness Society, said: "Ghaziabad police are taking the city to primitive times. Despite being so close to cosmopolitan Delhi, they don't seem to understand that the people of Ghaziabad are bound to become Westernized in their lifestyle. The lower- and middle-ranking policemen come from the countryside."

Police had earlier claimed that on account of the holidays for Eid-ul-Fitr and Teej and the long weekend, men and women had hired rooms in the hotel "for entertainment".

People in the neighbourhood, observing the unusual rush at the hotel, informed police.

Acting promptly, police raided the hotel and detained 112 people.

"We have found only four couples guilty of crime. The four couples, along with the hotel receptionist, have been arrested," Yadav said.