Salinas police bust “house of prostitution” on Main Street

A 34-year-old Salinas man is accused of knowingly allowing prostitution to go on at two motels on Main Street.

According to Police Commander Henry Gomez, officers have been receiving numerous complaints of prostitution activity at the Rodeo Inn and Star Motel for the past several months. The two motels are separate but occupy the same property at 1149 Main St.

Gomez said the officers have had no success in gaining cooperation of the motels’ owner to address the prostitution and other associated problems. They recently started building a criminal case against Navneet Maharaj, who they said had been made aware of the problem but allowed it to continue.

Wednesday evening, an officer was parked nearby monitoring the activity at the hotel and saw 13 cars pass through the parking lot during a brief period of time. Occupants of several of the cars confirmed to police that they were there for the purpose of prostitution.

Maharaj has been cited for maintaining a house of prostitution. Further details were not immediately available.