Customer found in brothel during police raid cannot be prosecuted under Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act: Calcutta High Court

The Calcutta High Court on Monday ruled that a customer merely visiting a brothel for sexual pleasure cannot be held liable for offences under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act (PITA). [Suresh Babu @ Arakkal Arjunan Suresh Babu vs State of West Bengal].Single-judge Justice Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee said that what is punishable under the Act is sexual exploitation or abuse of a person for commercial purpose and to earn the bread thereby, keeping or allowing a premises as brothel."Mere visiting the house of sex worker as customer cannot be presumed to be living on earnings of sex workers. To invoke the presumption it must be shown that he was found in the company of the sex worker on some other occasion," the Court said.The Court, therefore, quashed criminal proceedings against an NRI businessman Suresh Babu, who was booked after he was arrested during a raid by the police on January 4, 2019. .Babu was picked up from a local body massage center along with 8 women and one man.The prosecution claimed that the other man arrested was a pimp while the women were sex workers and one of them was the owner of the brothel, that was being run under the guise of massage center.The police arrested and chargesheeted all of them for running a brothel within the vicinity of a public place and living on the earnings arising from prostitution, which were offences under PITA. .The bench opined that the provisions under PITA punished sexual exploitation or abuse of a person for commercial purpose, however that was not the case against the applicant."I find no material in the case diary which can suggest that the present petitioner is living on earning of the prostitution. There is no material in the case diary that he was at the material time living with the sex worker or that he was habitual at the material time in her company. There is nothing to show that the petitioner exercised control, direction or influence over her movement in the way, which can be shown to be aiding or abetting her sex work," the judge said..The Court also noted that the applicant was merely a customer and could not be convicted for going to a brothel for sexual enjoyment."...a customer may virtually encourage prostitution and may exploit the sex worker for money but in the absence of any specific allegation and materials, I have serious doubt as to how present petitioner, who is merely a customer, can be convicted based on the materials adduced in the probe. He was merely a casual customer who had gone there for sexual enjoyment on payment basis," the judgment stated.Therefore, the Court quashed the chargesheet and the criminal proceedings initiated against the petitioner..Recently, the Karnataka High Court had also ruled that a customer found in a brothel cannot be prosecuted for offences of immoral trafficking.Advocates Tusher Mukherjee and Abu Abbas Uddin appeared for the petitioner. [Read Judgment]