STATE OF BIHAR Vs. JAGRUP SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the State Government against the acquittal of the five respondents, three of whom are females and two males. The female respondents, Shanti Bai, Hasina Bai and Bina Bai, were charged with offence under Sections 7 (i), 7 (2) and 8 (a) of the Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act, 1956, hereinafter to be referred to as the Act. The male respondents, Jagrup Singh and Sukhdeo Singh, were charged with offences under Secs. 5 (1) (a) and 7 (1) of the Act. The offences are said to have been committed on the 21st January, 1961, at the Kotha of one Kulsum Bai, on the Ashok Rajpath, in Mohalla Tarkari Bazar, at a distance of about 200 yards from Chowk police-station and 15 to 20 yards from a Shivala which has been declared to be a public place by a notification dated the 4th April, 1960, issued by the District Magistrate of Patna under Section, 7 (i) of the Act.

(2.) The prosecution case is that Sri T. P. Singh (P. W. 1), Assistant Superintendent of Police, Patna City and a special police officer within the meaning of Section 13 of the Act, received some confidential information that illegal prostitution was being indulged in at the Kotha of Kulsum Bai. Accordingly, he organised a raiding party consisting of himself, Inspector Madan Mohan Pd. Sinha {P. W. 2), Assistant Sub-Inspector Surajdip Singh (P. W. 4), Literate Constable B. N. Pandey (P. W. 5) and two residents of the locality, Devendra Prasad Jaiswal (P. W. 3) and Murari Lal (P. W. 7), and went in a body to the Kotha of Kulsum Bai, reaching there about 10.40 p. m. in the night of the 21st January, 1961. On reaching near the Kotha, the members of the police party saw the three female respondents standing on the balcony in the upper storey of the house. They were exhibiting their persons and making certain gestures with a view to attract persons who were passing on the road. The two male respondents happened to be attracted by the persons and gestures of the three ladies and they proceeded to ascend the steps leading to the Kotha. While they were so ascending they were caught by the members of the police party on the staircase itself. Subsequently, the three female respondents were also arrested by the police in a room adjacent to the balcony. The kotha was searched, but nothing incriminating was found there. All the five respondents were brought to the police station under arrest and, at 11.15 p. m., the same night, a first information report (exhibit 2) was drawn up by the Assistant Superintendent of Police (P. W. 1) himself. The investigation followed and, in due course, all the five respondents were put on trial before the learned sub-divisional magistrate of Patna City.

(3.) All the respondents denied their guilt and claimed to have been falsely implicated on mere suspicion. The case of the two male respondents is that they were working as mistris in the garage of one Sucha Singh and it was while they were returning from a cinema-house that they were arrested by the police. The case of respondent Shanti Bai is that she is the wife of one Rashid who is a motor-driver, and that of respondent Bina Bai is that she is the wife of Fakruddin (D. W. 3), a rickshaw-puller. The case of respondent Hasina Bai is that she is the niece of Md. Kasim (D. W. 1) to whom she had come from Bhagalpur, which is her usual place of residence, on the occasion of a ceremony of Milad Sharif which was to take place on the same night. All the five respondents denied that they were out to indulge in prostitution as envisaged in the Act.