Hyderabad: A city court recently dismissed a decade-old case registered against a car driver, stating that conducting searches at a place where prostitution is organised without the presence of a woman mediator violates the search proceedings as mandated by the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act (PITA). The court also deemed the entire search and seizure proceedings as ‘bad in law’ due to non-compliance with the provisions.
In 2014, SR Nagar police said they made an arrest and rescued a woman who was induced into prostitution. According to the police, in July 2014, they conducted a decoy operation on a house at Vengalrao Nagar, SR Nagar, based on information that the accused were organising prostitution.
The accused was arrested and later released on bail, while the rescued woman was lodged in a care home and later discharged from the home as per the orders of the court. During the trial, the court noted that although the evidence showed the police raided the house, it was clear they did not comply with the mandatory provisions of PITA.
Furthermore, the record clearly shows that the police secured two men as mediators for the search proceedings but could not provide any reason for not securing at least one woman mediator to witness the proceedings. “Therefore, the very conduct of search proceedings and the recording of consequential confession-cum-seizure panchnamas at the scene of the offence goes to the root of the case and it vitiates the entire proceedings,” observed the court.
The court also pointed out that the police did not examine any of the neighbours at the raided place, and even the witnesses mentioned were not local residents. Despite being given ample opportunities to produce the rescued woman before the court, she was not produced for examination, resulting in no cogent evidence to show that the accused induced her into prostitution, the court remarked while acquitting the accused.