London, Apr 16 : An Iranian police chief in-charge of checking corruption has been jailed after he was caught consorting with as many as six naked women in an underground brothel last week.

In Iran prostitution is illegal and punishable with death. Even talking about sex publicly is frowned upon by the hard-line clerics ruling the country.

General Reza Zarei, the police chief, was sent to jail, and the officials refused to comment on the case, saying it was into "legal stage".

The order to raid the alleged brothel was given directly by Iran's Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, reported the timesonline.com.

Zarei was in charge of a program to clean cities from corruption and in recent months had reported arrests of young men and women for illicit relationships and not respecting the Islamic dress code.

Iran's strict Islamic rules allow little socialising between the sexes, and young Iranians have been jailed and flogged for dancing together at birthday parties. Under Iranian law prostitution is punishable by death, but in the past decade prostitutes have become more visible on Iranian streets, mainly due to economic hardships.

The rise in prostitution has led to suggestions that brothels be legalised and monitored. Some Iranians say brothels could be run according to Islamic rules, perhaps under the Shiite Muslim tradition which allows men and women to enter into "temporary marriages", sometimes for less than 24 hours.

ANI