Karnataka High Court refuses to quash POSCO case against prostitution customer

The Karnataka High Court recently refused to quash criminal proceedings under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act against an accused who claimed that being a customer of prostitution services, he should be absolved under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act [Mohammad Shariff @ Fahim Haji v. State of Karnataka]..Justice M Nagaprasanna held,"If the contention of the petitioner is accepted that he is a customer and he should be let off, it would be putting a premium on the activities of the petitioner who has indulged in such acts which prima facie meet the ingredients of all the offences alleged against him. Technicality or hyper-technicality cannot mask the allegation of the kind alleged in the case at hand.".The Court also distinguished the case from instances where a customer is found to have indulged in such activities on a search being conducted at a spa, brothel or lodge. It was stated that in this instance, the minor victim herself had registered a complaint.“It is not a case where the alleged victim was above 18 years and it is not a case that the Police have conducted a search and unearthed any incident in a particular place which has been used to run a rocket of prostitution,” the judge elaborated..Further, it was pointed out that the offences alleged included those under Information Technology Act, since the complainant was threatened that her videos would be uploaded on multiple websites. The Court noted,“The petitioner is said to have indulged in sexual intercourse with a minor and not stopping at that indulged in videographing the incidents through his phone and is now threatening to make it viral on social media or on any other website.”.As per the complaint, the victim was a college student who was forced into prostitution. However, she escaped the clutches of those holding her and registered the complaint..The petitioner was charged for offences of kidnapping, rape, criminal intimidation, abetment and aggravated penetrative sexual assault on a minor.It was argued that the complainant had identified multiple people and multiple First Information Reports (FIR) were registered against them, which amounted to an abuse of the process of law..This argument was also rejected by the single-judge, as it was found that physical contact with every man was a separate incident.“Merely because the victim is the same, it cannot be said that only one crime should have been registered and all of them should be put in one basket as accused in the said crime.”With this reasoning, the Court dismissed the petition..Senior Advocate Sandesh J Chouta and Advocate Lethif B appeared for the petitioner while the respondents were represented by Special Public Prosecutor VS Hegde, High Court Government Pleader KP Yashodha and Advocate S Rajashekar..Customer found in brothel during police raid cannot be prosecuted under Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act: Calcutta High Court.[Read Order]