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Mumbai: The Bombay high court rejects a plea for bail to the two women accused of forcing one minor girl and an adult girl into prostitution. Prior to the verdict Justice Sarang Kotwal said that the investigation and its evidence are clearly stating one of the victims being a minor which leads to serious crime.
Applicants’ names are Shweta Sharma and Babita Sharma. The police registered the applicants under Sections 366A, 370(1), and 372 of IPC. They have also been booked under Sections 4 and 5 of the Immoral Traffic Act along with sections 16,17,18 of the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences act.
The accused Babita and Shweta applied for bail saying they have been in custody since February 2021, charge sheets were filed when they were arrested. The case started when a constable of the Crime Detection Unit of the Mumbai Police received information about the two women involved in prostitution. The police tracked the contact of the accused and called them for arranging a minor girl for them.
One of the accused Babita informed the customer that she had a minor. She quoted the price of 2 lakh rupees and 50 thousand for an adult. The customer fixed a location where the accused were to be tracked down and taken into custody.
During the search of the place of the accused Shweta and Babita, the police found an Adhaar Card clearly stating one of the girls was a minor: only 15 years old. In the police interrogation of the other victim, the police found out that Babita was her mother.
In his final statement, Justice Kotwal said that it makes the matter worse for the applicants because the victims were their relatives and they were forcing the girls into the darkness of prostitution. The FIR listed by the police finds screenshots, the sized Adhaar card at the hotel along with a statement from the raiding party members, this was the order recorded while Justice Kotwal rejected the plea for bail.