COIMBATORE: A magistrate court in Coimbatore has asked the city police not to arrest commercial s*x workers under the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act and send them to jail as they were only ‘‘victims’’ and should not be treated as ‘‘accused.’’
Two women in their 20s from Karnataka were arrested under Section 8 (B) of the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act by the all-women police in central Coimbatore on January 12, allegedly for soliciting clients on streets.
When their bail application came up before the judicial magistrate court-1 on Friday, L C Sathiamoorthy, magistrate, ordered their immediate release. In a significant observation reflecting a definite change in judicial perception of commercial s*x workers, the magistrate remarked that they were ‘‘debt-bonded, choiceless and hapless’’ victims forced into the trade.
The magistrate said: ‘‘Moral jurisprudence in the area of human trafficking would go to the extent of treating the girl or women arrested under 8 (B) of the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act as victim instead of accused’’.
Source:- https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5493628.cms
