The Delhi High Court has instructed the city police to make sure that all precautions are taken to stop prostitution rings from operating under the guise of massage parlours. Its decision was based on a public interest lawsuit alleging that such swindling operations had spread throughout the nation’s capital. The petition was dismissed by the court, and it was noted that if the police got information or complaints about prostitution rings, they took the appropriate measures.
A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad recently issued an order saying, “The respondent police is instructed to ensure that all measures are taken to prevent prostitution rings from being run under the guise of massage parlours’.
The Delhi Police Headquarters has instructed all deputy commissioners of police to ‘keep a check on massage parlours and to take suitable legal steps against them as and when they observe any unlawful activities taking place,’ the court underlined in its decision.
The court also noted that 405 massage parlours operated in the city between January 2017 and September 2019, and 19 complaints concerning prostitution rackets were received, per a status report provided by police. It further stated that eight complaints had FIRs filed against them, while the remaining 11 had charges that could not be proven during an investigation.
The court stated that actions were also taken against several massage parlours operating without the necessary commercial licence. ‘ This court is of the opinion that no further orders are required to be given in the instant case in light of the directives previously issued by Respondent No. 1 (Delhi Police Commissioner). Considering that the Delhi Police has been taking requisite activities’, it stated.
The status report, according to the court, ‘discloses that required action has been taken by police, whenever they have been in receipt of information or complaints with relation to prostitution rackets operating beneath massage parlours’.
Ateet Bansal, the petitioner, stated that sex ring operations operating under the guise of massage parlours constituted a grave threat to the safety and dignity of women. He said that he submitted the petition to protect women’s safety, which was in danger as illicit sex trafficking networks grew in number in the city and its environs. The petitioner had asked for guidance from authorities on how to start taking steps right now to outlaw all sex rackets.
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