Thane court acquits woman in human trafficking case

A Thane court has acquitted a 36-year-old woman accused in a human trafficking case, observing that the failure of the prosecution to examine the victims and the decoy customer reduced their claims to “hearsay”.

Holding that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, Additional Sessions Judge RS Bhakare on Wednesday acquitted Karuna alias Gudiya Hemant Biswas, a resident of Shil Daighar in Maharashtra’s Thane district.

According to the prosecution, the Thane police’s Anti-Human Trafficking Cell conducted a raid at Shiva Lodging and Boarding in Kalyan on August 26, 2019, after sending a decoy customer.

The police claimed to have caught the accused along with two female victims in a room there and recovered marked currency notes of Rs 4,500.

However, the court noted that the victims and the decoy customer were not examined during the trial as the prosecution failed to secure their presence.

“The witness summons had been sent to them, but the prosecution could not secure their presence. Several times, the summons sent to the victims returned unserved. As the victims have not been examined, whatever they have disclosed before the prosecution witnesses is hearsay in nature. It is a weak piece of evidence,” it said.

Moreover, the decoy customer, who was the best witness, has also not been examined by the prosecution, the court noted. 

Under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, the prosecution must establish components of active inducement, control, or living off the earnings of prostitution, which could not be substantiated without the primary witnesses, it observed.

A panch witness also turned hostile, admitting during cross-examination that he had signed the pre-raid and post-raid panchanamas directly at the police station rather than at the spot, making his testimony unreliable.