Ghaziabad: A high-profile gambling and sex trade racket at a three-star hotel in Ghaziabad was busted late on Wednesday night, following the arrest of 72 persons, including 6 women, police said on Thursday.
 The accused have been booked for drinking without permits, gambling and indulging in sex trade. The six women were booked under the Prevention of Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.
The arrests were made after the Ghaziabad police, acting on a tip-off, conducted a raid a little after midnight on Wednesday at Parth Inn, located on Hapur road.
They recovered about Rs 10 lakh and seized 19 cars and three licensed pistols, said Mussorie police station in-charge Rajesh Pande.
 “We had been receiving complaints about Parth Inn for quite some time. We were told that gambling, drinking and sex trade were rampant at the hotel. A team of cops, led by SSP Dharmendra Singh, raided the hotel around 12.30 am on Thursday. The six women, who have been arrested, were scantily dressed and were indulging in obscene dances,” Pande said.
 Deputy Superintendent of police Ran Vijay Singh said casinos were found operating in the hotel and women were serving liquor.
“Two of our men, who had earlier slipped inside in plain clothes, saw that the gamblers were taking turns and going into a cabin at the far end and indulging in sex trade. We even found a number of used prophylactics. Then, we swooped on men and women in the basement. We recovered about Rs 10 lakh from the gambling tables,” Pande added.
The officer added that 66 of the 72 persons were businessmen from Ghaziabad, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, and said the women were sex workers.
While five of them were from Delhi, one hailed from Ghaziabad. The police said that the group was part of an inter-state racket. The cops also booked the hotel’s management officials and other staff under the Excise Act.
Parth Inn’s managing director Dhanendra Kumar said, “I don’t really know what happened at the hotel. But there were cards, cash and contraceptives recovered. I can only look into this matter after I am granted bail.”