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Dismissing habeas corpus plea challenging the detention order of a woman who has been detained for running prostitution business, Telangana High Court last week said that trafficking of women is the gravest form of abuse.

Division Bench of Justice A. Rajasheker Reddy and Dr. Justice Shameem Akther stated, "The offenders, right from the traffickers to the end-users, exploit the vulnerability of the trafficked person.......The physical abuse, torture, psychological and emotional trauma of the victims of human trafficking is clearly destructive and unacceptable in any civilized society. " 

Court also added that the consequences of human trafficking have devastating effect on the society as a whole.

Court was dealing with a habeas corpus plea filed by the mother of the 29-year-old detenue Mudise SuryaKumari alleging that the challenged detention order of the year 2020 was passed based on a solitary crime. It was further argued that the detenue was falsely implicated. 

However, court held that there was sufficient material on record to prove that detenue was habitually involved in such illegal activities. Court noted earlier also she had been detained for the same reason in 2015 and even after court's direction upon her subsequent release she started her illegal activities within a year defying court's directions. 

Court noted, "Despite arrest by police several times on the charges of running prostitution business and facing trial before the Courts in the criminal cases, the detenue could not mend her ways and repeatedly resorted to similar criminal activities, as soon as her release from prison in each case."

Therefore, following these findings, court declined petitioner’s argument that the present detention order was passed without application of mind and dismissed the present plea. 

Before parting with the matter, Court found it pertinent to state that thousands of women are being trafficked everyday and they are forced to lead lives of slavery in brothel houses, guesthouses etc.

Court also discussed the law of preventive detention. Court said that the personal liberty of an individual, which the law preserves and protects, can also be taken away by following the procedure established by law, when it is used to jeopardize the public good and not merely private interests.

"An order or detention is not a curative or reformative or punitive action, but a preventive action, the avowed object of which is to prevent the anti-social and subversive elements from imperiling the welfare of the people or the security of the nation or from disturbing the public tranquility," Court said.

Matter in Brief

Commissioner of Police, Rachakonda passed a detention order on October 6, 2020 against Mudise SuryaKumari which was also later confirmed by the Government on December 17, 2020.

The order was passed on the grounds that Mudise, along with her associates, formed into a syndicate and had been engaging herself in unlawful illegal activities of organizing prostitution clandestinely by acting as a leader/member of a criminal gang to make easy buck in a short period.

The commissioner had found out that Mudise had been running an online prostitution racket for pimping and receiving payment.

Mudise was also found involved in as many as fourteen criminal cases of immoral trafficking in the limits of erstwhile Cyberabad Commissionerate during the years 2013 and 2015.

In the instant matter, Special Operations Team of Malkajgiri Zone received credible information about online brothel business being run and soliciting customers in the limits of Keesara. Accordingly, the police decided to conduct decoy operation to fish out the accused Mudise and found her involved in the brothel business.

After the operation, three West Bengal state origin women were rescued from Mudise’s trap and were sent to Rescue Home.

Case Citation: WP No.24635 of 2020, Telangana High Court