STATE OF KERALA Vs. AZEEZ

JUDGEMENT

(1.) An application filed by the Public Prosecutor under Sec. 216 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 ( for short 'the Cr.P.C') to alter the charge already framed by adding another offence was dismissed by the impugned order. The said order is assailed in this petition under Sec. 482 Cr.P.C.

(2.) According to the prosecution, the accused had in the year 2006, promised to provide CWs 1 and 2 with cleaning jobs at a Hospital in Dubai, and after collecting money, they were taken to Dubai. After reaching Dubai, they were confined in an apartment and were served with a beverage containing intoxicating substances and were repeatedly raped. The victims were forcibly taken to other apartments and, after wrongly confining them, were compelled to have sexual intercourse with several strangers. After the victims managed to escape from the clutches of the accused and, with the help of the Indian Embassy and others, came back to India and lodged the FIR as Crime No. 445/2006 of Thoppumpady Police Station. On completion of the investigation, the final report was filed, arraying the accused as having committed offences under Sec. 420, 376, and 342 read with Sec. 120B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 ( for short 'the IPC'). The case was committed to the Sessions Court and is now pending as S.C. No. 633/2014 on the files of the Additional Sessions Court, Ernakulam (For the trial of cases relating to Atrocities & Sexual Violence against Women and Children)

(3.) After the trial commenced and PWs 1 and 2 were examined, the prosecutor filed Crl.M.P. No. 1/2019 under Sec. 216 of Cr.P.C, requesting to incorporate Sec. 370 of the IPC also as an additional offence to be charged against the accused. According to the prosecution, the materials collected and the evidence adduced indicated the ingredients of the said Sec. , and therefore, the charge ought to be framed under the said Sec. as well. However, by the impugned order, the learned Sessions Judge held that since the trafficking of a person was incorporated by virtue of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2013, which came into force only on 3/2/2013, and the allegations related to the year 2006, much before the incorporation of the offence of trafficking of a person, the offence under Sec. 370 IPC cannot have any application.