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crlp_4306_2015
AVR,J
THE HON' BLE SRI JUSTICE A. VENKATESHWARA REDDY
CRIMINAL PETITION No.4306 of 2015
ORDER:
The petitioner-accused No.3 has filed this petition under Section 482 of Cr.P.C. to quash the proceedings in C.C.No.1 of 2015 (Crime No.449 of 2014 of P.S.Chilkalguda, Hyderabad), on the file of learned Special Judicial Magistrate of First Class for Excise, at Erramanjil, Hyderabad, Telangana State.
The petitioner along with Accused Nos.1 and 2, was charged for the offences punishable under Sections 3, 4 and 5 of Immoral Trafficking (Prevention), 1956 (for short, 'the Act'). Accused No.1 is shown as organizer whereas the petitioner/accused No.3 is shown as customer.
It is alleged that on 29.07.2014 at 9:00 AM, at the residence of accused No.2 Smt. Jyothi, the petitioner/accused No.3 was found and the accused No.1 was running that brothel house, taking the premises at Mylargadda on monthly rental basis. Accordingly, accused Nos.1 to 3 were remanded to judicial custody. The investigation discloses that accused No.1 - Junior Artist is an organizer whereas accused No.3 is a customer, and they were arrested and remanded for committing the offence punishable under Sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Act.
Learned counsel for the petitioner/accused No.3 would submit that none of the Sections 3, 4 and 5 or other sections of the Act describe a 'customer' as offender and therefore prosecution of the 2 crlp_4306_2015 AVR,J petitioner/accused No.3 is abuse of process of law and hence the proceedings against the petitioner may be quashed.
Learned Public Prosecutor has contended that the petitioner, being a co-accused, is liable for prosecution.
Perused the entire record, scheme of the Act, particularly Sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Act.
A perusal of the Act would show that nowhere it is described that a customer is also an offender. Section 3 of the Act deals with punishment for keeping a brothel or letting the premises to be used as brothel; Section 4 deals with punishment for living on the earnings of prostitution; whereas Section 5 deals with procuring, inducing or taking for the sake of prostitution.
Obviously, the allegation against the petitioner/accused No.3 is not that he is either running a brothel house or procuring women for the purpose of prostitution or that he is living by earning money on prostitution.
As per the averments of the charge sheet, he was found along with accused Nos.1 and 2 only as a customer of flesh trade. Therefore, Sections 3 to 5 of the Act are not applicable to the petitioner. Further, none of the other penal provisions under the Act describe a customer as an offender.
Therefore, there is any amount of force in the submission of the learned counsel for the petitioner that a customer of flesh trade cannot be treated as offender under the Act. 3
crlp_4306_2015 AVR,J This aspect is no longer res integra and we are fortified by the latest judgment in the Crl.P.No.1795 of 2015 dated 19.03.2015 of this Court and two other judgments of this Court in Goenka Sajan Kumar v. The State of A.P1; and Z. Lourdaiah Naidu v. State of Andhra Pradesh2.
In all the above three cases, the petitioners were admittedly customers of brothel house, consequently the proceedings against them were quashed holding that the provisions of the Act cannot be invoked for prosecuting customers.
Having regard to the facts of the case, and the above precedential jurisprudence on the subject in issue, it is clear that the criminal proceedings against the petitioner-accused No.3 would amount to abuse of process of law.
In the result, the criminal petition is allowed, quashing the proceedings against the petitioner/accused No.3 in C.C.No.1 of 2015 (Crime No.449 of 2014 of P.S. Chilkalguda, Hyderabad), on the file of learned Special Judicial Magistrate of First Class for Excise, at Erramanjil, Hyderabad, Telangana. Miscellaneous petitions, if any pending in this criminal petition, shall stand closed.
________________________ A. VENKATESHWARA REDDY, J 02nd November, 2021 ksm 1 2014 (2) ALD (Cri) 264 2 2013 (2) ALD (Cri) 393 4 crlp_4306_2015 AVR,J THE HON' BLE SRI JUSTICE A. VENKATESHWARA REDDY CRIMINAL PETITION No.4306 of 2015 02nd November, 2021 ksm