PUNE: Two television actresses and a couple from Mumbai were arrested for prostitution at a plush hotel in Shivajinagar on Tuesday night.

The couple, Smita Dhiwar (33) and her husband Dineshkumar Dhiwar (35), residents of Virar, run a casting agency for films in Mumbai. The two women arrested are in their early 20s and have acted in several TV serials. Bhanupratap Barge, senior PI of the social security cell of crime branch, said the Dhiwar couple has confessed to their crime.

Sub-inspector Ashwini Jagtap got a tip-off that models and small-time TV actresses from Mumbai were being used to run a sex racket in the city. The police set up a decoy on July 30 to contact Smita Dhiwar. She agreed to come to Pune with two TV actresses on Tuesday. “The decoy was told that he will have to pay Rs 50,000 for two hours. He was asked to deposit Rs 10,000 at Dineshkumar Dhiwar’s bank account. After the money was deposited, Smita Dhiwar told him that she would come to Pune on Tuesday night. She also asked him to book two rooms in a five-star hotel,” Barge said. The crime branch sleuths arrested the woman, her husband and the two women at the hotel on Tuesday night.

Police said the Dhiwars were running the racket since last three years.

One of the actresses hails from Gujarat and has acted in TV serials and two films. The other woman hails from Haryana. She has done a regional film in Haryana, Barge said.

The couple was remanded to police custody till August 6. The two women were sent to magisterial custody.