Mumbai, February 03: Intensifying the fight against prostitution, the social service branch of the Mumbai police have arrested two men, including a South Mumbai-based diamond trader, for allegedly paying money for sex. This is the first time the police is targeting the clients as well as the pimps involved.
Although the Prevention of Immoral Traffic Act (PITA) has been in force since 1986, clients were not apprehended; instead they were made witnesses against the pimps and middlemen forcing women into prostitution.
According to the police, this is similar to drunk-driving cases – the law was always in place, but not implemented, until now. “Under section 5 of PITA, it is clearly mentioned that any individual who instigates, coerces or buys another person for sex is liable to be punished,” said assistant commissioner of police Vasant Dhoble.
“Once the customers are targeted, they will stop indulging in such activities. This will help in curbing prostitution in the city,” Dhoble said.
Acting on source-based information, the police team raided a Khar hotel last week. During the search operation, the two accused – a diamond trader and his Surat-based friend – were found in compromising positions with two girls. The girls informed the police that they had been sent by a pimp to meet the two suspects in the hotel, and had been given money as well. Further investigations revealed that the suspects had paid money to the pimp.
The police then arrested three pimps as well as the two clients. Four girls were rescued from the hotel, and have been sent to shelter homes.
The two clients have been identified as Damji Kakdiya, 29, and Jitesh Bhagwanjibhai, 31. According to the police, the special PITA court, in a rare instance, remanded the arrested accused to six days police custody, after which they were sent to judicial custody.
The police are now awaiting the medical reports of the rescued girls, to ascertain whether there was intercourse or not.
If found guilty under section 5 of the PITA, the accused could be sentenced to a maximum of seven years. If it turns out that the girls are minors, the police could book the accused under charges of rape, for which the maximum punishment is 14 years.
The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act or PITA is a 1986 amendment of legislation passed in 1956, as a result of India signing the United Nations’ declaration in 1950 in New York on the suppression of trafficking. The Act, then called the All India Suppression of Immoral Traffic Act (SITA), was amended to the current law. The laws were intended as a means of limiting and eventually abolishing prostitution in India by gradually criminalising various aspects of sex work.
—SOurce:Dna