Odisha: Police conducts raids on dance bars in Cuttack, rescues 96 women

Bhubaneswar: Cracking down on dance bars for illegally engaging women, a joint team of five police stations carried out 'Operation Dance Bar', in which they raided 10 different bars in Laxmi Sagar area and Cuttack Road and detained 96 women.

"We had received complaints that a lot of bars in the city were engaging women without any valid license. We carried out 10 different raids across the city and rescued 96 women," Deputy Commissioner of Police Anup Sahu told ANI.
The women were later released after proper identity verification.

"We will submit prosecution reports to the licensing authorities and government over the permit issue with these bars. None of the bars had license to engage women. Many of them did not even have police permission to use loudspeakers," Sahu said.

Apart from Odisha girls, the dance bars had also engaged dancers from West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Mumbai, Punjab, and Haryana.

Meanwhile, state bar secretary Satya Mohanty has said that there is a contradiction between the laws.

"A 2008 Act bars engagement of women in bars while Odisha Excise rules 2017 allow the same. We had applied for permits but have not received any. The permit is provided within four weeks of application," Mohanty said.