Mumbai: A team of policemen and civic officials, who reached a lodge in Thane to demolish it on Thursday, unearthed a fully-furnished three-storey lodge, complete with tiled and wallpapered corridors and electricity and water supply.
According to officials, a drive was launched on Wednesday against all bars within Thane city limits, which have been secretly operating as dance bars, and lodges attached to or near the bars where flesh trade has been flourishing over the past several years.
As part of the drive, the team reached Satyam Lodge near Upvan Lake on Thursday afternoon. “Seen from outside, the lodge is a simple, single-storey structure. However, when we demolished it, we saw some water pipes running underground. As we had already demolished the structure, accessing the front side was impossible. We went over to the back, which has dense shrubbery, and found an access to the underground. We went downstairs to find three storeys below the ground level,” said Deputy Municipal Commissioner Sandeep Malvi, Thane Municipal Corporation.
The officials contacted their superiors and called in reinforcements, after which a comprehensive search was undertaken. The search lasted hours as the officials went through each room, which has electricity and water supply, and electrical appliances like air conditioners.
“The lodge has a total of 290 rooms, and we found liquor bottles and contraceptives. We will be demolishing the structure on Thursday night,” said Mr. Malvi.
The Thane police, meanwhile, have initiated investigations to find out how long the underground lodge has been operational. The lodge is located next to a bar named Harshit, and the police suspect that it was a front for a flesh trade racket, in which clients were allowed to select commercial sex workers of their choice, and then taken to the lodge, sources said.
Apart from Satyam Lodge, the authorities razed 29 bars and 27 lodges on Wednesday and eight bars on Thursday.
