SC takes note of birth of child in incarceration, grants bail to woman in human trafficking case

A tribal woman accused of luring and driving her cousin sister into prostitution has been granted bail by the Supreme Court which took note of the fact that she has been in incarceration for last 18 months and delivered a child there.

A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana termed it as a “fit case to grant her bail” and rejected the vehement plea of Delhi Police that the accused not be allowed to walk out of jail on bail as she drove her cousin to prostitution.

The bench, also comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, took note of the submissions of senior advocate Salman Khurshid and lawyer T K Nayak that the woman herself was a victim and moreover, she has already undergone sentence of 18 months and had delivered the child on November 1, 2020.

The senior lawyer said the accused, 21, herself was pushed into flesh trade and was living in the confines of the prime accused and under a constant threat of life.

“Having heard counsel for the parties and taking into consideration the fact that the petitioner has suffered incarceration for a period of 18 months and has also delivered child during custody, we deem it to be a fit case to grant her bail,” the bench noted in its order.

On December 4 last year, the Delhi High Court had rejected the plea for regular bail after taking note of the status report of Delhi Police in two similar cases lodged under the law on human trafficking against her.

“I have perused the status report filed by the State. The allegations against the petitioner is she lured her cousin sister/complainant/prosecutrix for a job in Delhi but the prosecutrix was indulged in forced prostitution by the co-accused person where the victim was left by the applicant,” the high court had said.

The high court had not agreed with the plea that the accused was also “a victim of the circumstances and was also harassed and put in this work by the co-accused Abinash and Neha”.

“I failed to understand if this is true, why she has called her cousin sister/victim and get her employed so that she may also be forced into prostitution,” the high court judge had noted.