Shillong Jan. 10: Meghalaya police today issued advisories to hotels and guesthouses in the city as a part of measures to curb trafficking and other crimes.

The advisory was issued following an incident where a minor girl was trafficked to a number of hotels and guesthouses and allegedly sexually exploited by some high profile people in the city.

At a meeting with hotel owners and police officials here, various issues related to security measures by hotels and guesthouses were discussed. In the meeting, the superintendent of police (city), Vivek Syiem, spoke of the need to obtain the cooperation of hotel owners and guesthouses.

He highlighted certain mechanisms to be adopted so that people with "bad intentions" can be identified.

Syiem advised them to install CCTVs to clearly capture the face of persons coming to hotels/guesthouses.

"CCTVs help both the police and owners, especially when unwanted activities occur on the premises of hotels/guesthouses, and make it easy to identify criminals," Syiem said.

The police also urged them to maintain a proper register to record personal details and keep copies of their identity documents.

"The name of the person who booked the room, as well as the identities of all occupants and their addresses should also be recorded. This will help the hotels and police to keep track of the criminals," Syiem said.

He also advised the owners to properly check the antecedents of their employees and monitor them.

"Even if they come and work for a short period, the onus is on the owners to maintain correct names and proper address of the employees, whether they are from within or outside the state," he added.

Syiem also advised the owners to engage private security guards.

"People with bad intentions will take advantage of hotels and guesthouses to commit unwanted activities. There have been cases of trafficking children. If we encourage this, trafficking of women and children will increase and if such crime increases, it would also attribute to spread of HIV/AIDS," the superintendent of police said.

The police also urged the public and staff of hotels/guesthouses to alert them if they found anything suspicious.

The hotel owners lauded the police initiative and assured them of cooperation.

The owners also asked the police to share data, especially the names of wanted criminals and missing persons, to enable their identification.

Meanwhile, the police today arrested another person involved in the trafficking of the minor girl.

The management of Marvelene's Inn denied its involvement in the trafficking of the minor girl who was sexually exploited twice there.

Home minister H.D.R. Lyngdoh's son, Nathanial Rymmai, who owns the hotel, told reporters today that the management was ignorant of any such incident. "#Neither I nor the management of the inn was involved. We are cooperating with police and want the victim (minor girl) to get justice," Rymmai said.

The manager of the inn, E.D. Kharir, said if he had known of the incident, he would have informed the police.

"If the proprietor or I as manager was involved in this case, we would have taken anticipatory bail. I want to clearly tell the people that we have no hand and we cannot be blamed for the trafficking of the minor girl," Kharir said.

The police have arrested the waiter of the inn, Usha Deb Barman, for his alleged involvement as well as Mamoni Parveen, in whose house at Madanrting here the 14-year-old girl worked as a domestic help. The accused had allegedly used the minor for prostitution and taken the girl to various hotels and guesthouses.

The minor was also alleged to have been sexually exploited at Lumsohphoh guesthouse here, owned by one D.M. Lyngwa.

Another person, Kentli Tangsang, aged 66, was arrested from the city for his alleged involvement in the case. He hails from Wahkdait village near Dawki.

With this, the number of arrests have gone up to nine, including Independent MLA Julius Dorphang. A case against Dorphang has been registered at Laitumkhrah police station here, under Section 366 (A) of IPC read with Section 3(a)/4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act and under Section 5 of Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act (ITPA).

"So far nine persons, including five pimps, have been arrested in this regard," a police official said.

The police said investigation is on and they are looking for more persons involved in the crime.