The police carried out a prostitution raid at an outlet of Inul Vizta karaoke – one of the most popular family KTV chains in Indonesia – in the East Java city of Kediri yesterday, arresting 10 including four alleged strippers.
The raid was carried out at 11pm on Thursday, at a time when there was allegedly a striptease going on inside one of the karaoke rooms. Other than the four alleged strippers, the police also arrested three employees, two customers and the venue’s manager, who police alleged had been facilitating prostitution at his establishment for some time.
“The manager provided girls and escorts for the karaoke guests, as well as strip shows and ML (a local abbreviation for ‘making love’) in the karaoke rooms,” said East Java Police Spokesman Frans Barung Mangera, as quoted by Detik today.
The police say that they are still questioning the 10 people they arrested, and have not announced what charges they will face.
In the Indonesian Criminal Code (KUHP), facilitators of prostitution (in this case, the karaoke’s manager) can be punished with up to 1 year and 4 months in prison, but the law does not criminalize sex workers or their customers unless stated in any regional bylaws.
Inul Vizta is a franchised karaoke chain owned by and named after Indonesian dangdut legend Inul Daratista. Inul said she didn’t know about the raid in Kediri when asked about it today, but her franchise manager Aryani said they could terminate their contract with the Kediri outlet.
“This is a family-friendly karaoke chain, so (prostitution) shouldn’t be allowed,” Aryani told Detik.
“But we have to first see (if the allegations are true). It could be that the guests brought (escorts) from the outside, we don’t know at this point.”
Inul Vizta went through a similar scandal before in 2015, after police raided an outlet in Tangerang and found that it provided alcohol and female escorts to customers. The news infuriated Inul at the time, who said that she “hates female escorts” and would shut down any of her eponymous karaoke outlets if they were found to be serving alcohol or allowing prostitution to take place.
