HIV Positive "Prostitution Victim" A Likely Danger To Society, "Brainwash" Necessary : Sessions Court Upholds Two-Year Detention

A sessions court in Mumbai has upheld the two-year detention of an HIV positive prostitution victim, observing that she is likely to 'pose a danger to society' if set free owing to her health condition. Additional Session judge SU Baghele said that the victim would receive care and protection in the correction home, which would help her lead a normal life after the necessary "brainwash." "As the victim is indisputedly suffering from HIV, which can be easily transmitted through sexual intercourse, the setting of the victim at large is likely to pose a danger to the society…" The woman's father approached the Sessions Court in appeal after a Magistrate under section 17(4) of the Immoral Traffic ( Prevention ) Act, 1956 ordered the victim's detention for two years in a shelter home. The father's counsel submitted that the woman was arrested due to a misunderstanding and her HIV positive status. Moreover, his daughter is an actor, and he is a police officer, the family is financially sound and they can maintain her. The prosecutor opposed the application and stated that the woman was caught red-handed. She was sent for vocational training in the correction home and she was HIV positive. The court noted that the magistrate's main objective behind directing detention is the possibility of transmission of disease through sexual intercourse and the victim's rehabilitation to prevent her from indulging in such activities in the future through counselling. The sessions court rejected the father's reliance on the Bombay High Court's decision in Asiya Anwar Shaikh Vs The State of Maharashtra as the victim therein was not suffering from any disability to pose any danger to the society. "The care and protection of the victim can also be ensured, by detaining her, as directed by the learned Magistrate, so as to ensure that the victim leads a normal life in future, after getting necessary brainwash," the court observed. The court rejected the woman's father's contention that since she belonged to an affluent family she wouldn't indulge in immoral activities. "There is no substance in the submission that the victim is not likely to indulge into such immoral activities, being financially sound, looking to the factual matrix, as primafacie apparent from the FIR, whereby the victim is said to have agreed to indulge into prostitution at the particular moment, by accepting Rs. 1,00,000/." Click Here To Read/ Download Judgment

HIV Positive "Prostitution Victim" A Likely Danger To Society, "Brainwash" Necessary : Sessions Court Upholds Two-Year Detention

Sharmeen Hakim

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