STATE OF MYSORE Vs. SUSHEELA AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) AT about 3 -30 P.M. on August 27, 1962 Keshav, a head constable in Bidar town, transmitted of Police P.W.6, that Abdul Nabi on the invitation of a young woman Suseela, entered her house. Keshav stated that within ten or fifteen minutes the Superintendent of Police along with a Sub -Inspector, a lady constable and two panch witnesses arrived near the house in a van. It was said that when they entered the house they found one of the rooms bolted from inside and Suseela and Nabi came out of that room on their being asked to open the door. Suseela is accused 1 and Nabi is accused 2, and the charge brought against them before the District Magistrate was that they were guilty of an offence of prosecution carried on within 200 yards of an educational institution punishable under S.71 of the Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act, 1956 which will be referred to as the Act.

(2.) FIVE others, all of whom were women and who were in State of Mysore part of the house or the other were charged with other offences. During the pendency of the proceedings before the District Magistrate, accused 6, the owner of the house, and accused 3 died, and on the conclusion of the trial, the District Magistrate acquitted all the surviving five accused.

(3.) THE prosecution case was that a house in Pathakgalli in the town of Bidar was used as a brothel and that Suseela who is accused 1 was carrying on prostitution in one portion of that house. Keshav P.W. 1 gave evidence that he was asked by the Sub -Inspector P.W. 4 to keep a watch over the house since that Sub -Inspector had received complaints from the public in respect of the activities in that house. It was said that on August 27, 1962 Keshav gave information to the Superintendent of Police that an act of prostitution was going on in that house and that when the police party arrived there they found Suseela accused 1 and Nabi accused 2 inside a room in that house having bolted the door from inside.