PANAJI, May 12 (TOI): The crime branch on Sunday busted an inter-state prostitution racket and rescued two girls from Delhi, originally from Kolkata, and arrested a pimp. Police said that the pimp, Shankar Gowda, a native of Bengaluru, Karnataka, and resident of Mumbai, Maharashtra, was running the racket through a website.

Police arrested Gowda and produced him before the judicial magistrate first class, Panaji. He has been remanded to four-day police custody.

A crime branch officer said that they found out about the prostitution racket from sources. Using a decoy customer to call the pimp and discuss a deal, police sources said that the accused was demanding around 26,000 for a girl per night but after negotiation, the deal was fixed at 18,000.

Police said that when the accused came to Patto, Panaji, to deliver the girl to the prospective customer, police detained the accused and rescued two girls.

Police said that the accused brought the girls to Goa by promising them "good jobs". Police said the victims are daily wages workers from New Delhi.

In another incident, the crime branch raided two different spas at Porvorim and Panaji. Police said that they received information that girls had been pushed into prostitution at the spas. Police said that when they raided the places, they did not find any prostitution racket being run but noticed that cross-gender massages were being allowed. 

The crime branch officer said that they have recommended to the directorate of health services to cancel the spas' licences for allowing cross-gender massages.