The Bombay High Court recently granted bail to a woman charged under Immoral Traffic Prevention Act (ITPA) while taking into consideration the fact that investigation was over and she has two minor children.
A single judge Bench of Justice S.V. Kotwal was hearing the criminal bail application filed by a woman arrested by Shiroli police station, Kolhapur, on October 1, 2019 and has since been in custody.
As per the FIR, the police received information that two women were standing near a restaurant allegedly waiting for customers. The police sent a decoy customer who struck a deal for ₹500 with one of them. After taking the money she asked the other woman to go with the “customer”. Upon a pre-arranged signal, the police then moved in and arrested the woman.
She was charged under Sections 370 (buying or disposing of any person as a slave) of the Indian Penal Code and under Section 4 (punishment for living on the earnings of prostitution), 5 (procuring, inducing or taking a person for the sake of prostitution), and 7 (prostitution in or in the vicinity of public places) of ITPA.
The court noted the applicant was procuring customers for the other woman and taking money from them. The court relied on the statement of the woman who said she was not being forced into prostitution. She was doing it to earn money as she was very poor. The court said the investigation is over, the chargesheet is filed and the applicant has two minor children.
Hence the applicant was ordered to be released on bail on furnishing a personal bond for ₹10,000.
