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NT Bureau
Chennai, May 23:

        Ayurvedic massage parlours, which purveyed one of the ancient systems of Indian medicine, are now in the news for all the wrong reasons. The reason - They have become, rather unwittingly, a helping hand, for those involved in the flesh trade in the city.

        T Nagar police arrested two Kerala men in their mid-thirties, on Friday for allegedly inducing four women into the flesh trade under the garb of massage parlours, at Jagathambal Street (in T Nagar).

        According to sources, in the last two years, the Anti-Vice Squad (AVS) of the city police has cracked 11 such cases and rescued many girls from massage parlours, which were being used as brothel houses.

        Salesh Raj, Assistant Commissioner of Police - T Nagar, said, 'On receiving a tip-off about the flesh trade being carried out in a particular parlour, we as a team monitored the place. Initially we sent a police constable as a customer. After a deal was struck, police personnel swung into action and arrested those behind the racket. Two persons said to be involved in the crime were arrested and the four women sent back to their respective homes.'

        'There are scores of ayurveda massage parlours operating in the city and because of the prostitution racket active in some of them, we tend to doubt even genuine ones,' he said and added 'we are closely monitoring operations in such massage parlours in T Nagar. Also, we are trying to regulate the functioning of such parlours.'

        Sreejith, who runs a massage parlour in the Pondy Bazaar area, said, 'this is a traditional profession, which should be run in an organised manner. Many stressed-out IT professionals, management heads, personnel from the film industry and those suffering from spinal cord problems come here to relax.'

        'It is more than a profession and making this a sex racket should be curbed,' he felt.