Visakhapatnam: Around 20 police teams raided 77 spas in Visakhapatnam City on Sunday evening suspecting illegal activities and for violating the Shops and Establishment Act. The spas, mostly organising cross massages, mushroomed after lockdown and flights to Thailand were cancelled.
Most of the female workers in these spas were from northeastern region and Nepal whose appearance matches Thai girls. Even Thai girls were brought on tourist visas but the police booked cases against them for overstay after expiry of tourist visas.
As an alternative, girls from poor families of the northeastern region were brought as a replacement.
“The spas are full of northeastern girls,’’ said an inspector of a special branch who was part of the raid.
The deputy commissioner of police Srinivasa Rao told this correspondent that they have divided the Spas into major, medium and new and conducted raids.
“We will now separate them into spa, massage centres and saloons for investigation,’’ the DCP said.
The raiding team also observed that some of the centre owners have been running without required permissions, while a few have installed doors for cross-gender massage.
The owners of the spa and massage centres have not issued any identity cards to their employees and they have not maintained the visitor’s log.
Another officer said there were only two spas which were involved in cross massages and issued notice under Section 41(A).
The spas and massage centres are mostly found in Siripuram area, Pandurangapuram, East Point Colony, Seethammadhara, Dwarakanagar and MVP Colony under Three Town and Fourth Town limits.
