Madhya Pradesh High Court
Saurabh Khandelwal vs The State Of Madhya Pradesh on 31 October, 2022
Author: Gurpal Singh Ahluwalia
Bench: Gurpal Singh Ahluwalia
1
IN THE HIGH COURT OF MADHYA PRADESH
AT GWALIOR
BEFORE
HON'BLE SHRI JUSTICE GURPAL SINGH AHLUWALIA
ON THE 31st OF OCTOBER, 2022
MISCELLANEOUS CRIMINAL CASE NO. 50567 OF 2022
BETWEEN:-
SAURABH KHANDELWAL S/O ASHOK
KHANDELWAL, AGE 34 YEARS,
OCCUPATION SCIENTIST, R/O GREEN
HOTEL COLONY, PADAV, DISTRICT
GWALIOR, MADHYA PRADESH
........APPLICANT
(BY SHRI PRASHANT SHARMA - ADVOCATE)
AND
STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH
THROUGH POLICE STATION PADAV,
DISTRICT GWALIOR, MADHYA
PRADESH
........RESPONDENT
(BY SHRI C.P. SINGH - PANEL LAWYER)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This application on for hearing this day, the Court passed the
following:
ORDER
Case diary is available.
This first application under Section 439 Cr.P.C. has been filed for grant of bail.
The applicant has been arrested on 18.10.2022 in connection with 2 Crime No.487/2022 registered at Police Station Padav, District Gwalior for offence under Sections 3, 4, 5, 7 of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 and Section 370-A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
I.A. No.16668/2022 has been filed for taking additional documents on record and I.A. No.16667/2022 has been filed under Section 91 of CrPC.
So far as application under Section 91 of CrPC is concerned, this Court in exercise of power under Section 439 of CrPC is not supposed to travel beyond the scope of the jurisdiction, therefore, I.A. No.16667/2022 is hereby rejected.
So far as I.A. No.16668/2022 is concerned, the same is allowed and the additional documents are taken on record.
It is submitted by the counsel for the applicant that according to the prosecution case, the police raided a hotel Mayur and found that six girls were kept in the hotel for prostitution purposes. One person and a girl was found in an objectionable condition and, accordingly, with the help of lady police officer, the said girl was allowed to wear clothes and one empty packet of condom was also seized. The girl disclosed her name as 'A' resident of Hari Nagar Ashram, Delhi. Similarly, five girls were recovered from room no. 215. It is submitted that the applicant is neither the owner nor the manager of the hotel. Register of the customers as well as computer and DVR have already been seized by the police. The applicant has a brilliant educational background and by letter dated 25.04.2018, he was offered the position of Research Associate in the Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment by Oxford Brookes University. In the year 2014, he was awarded Young Scientist Award by 3 M.P. Council of Science & Technology, Bhopal. In the year 2013, he was awarded fellowship for training of Young Scientist of M.P. Council of Science and Technology. In the year 2016, name of the applicant was highlighted as an Outstanding Engineer and worthy of recipient of certificate of Cambridge International Biographical Centre. In the year 2015, he was selected for inclusion of his biographical profile in the new Who's who in the World 2016 (33rd Edition). In the year 2016 he was chosen as a finalist for the year's 35 Innovators under 35 list sponsored by MIT Technology Review. In the year 2019, he had moved an application for grant of a Patent to Barker Brettell LLP, United Kingdom. The police was making illegal demands from the hotel and, therefore, the grand mother who is the proprietor of the hotel had made a complaint to Additional DGP / IG, Gwalior on 20.06.2022 about the illegal activities by the police in demanding weekly ransom. A similar complaint was made to the Prime Minister Office. Father of the applicant is a retired Director of Indian Accounts and Accountant Examination Department. Wife of the applicant is a Chartered Accountant. The Mayur Hotel was registered in the name of Smt. Susheela Khandelwal, grand mother of the applicant. It is further submitted that in the year 2012, the applicant was offered financial assistance for attending in 2nd International Advances and Applied Physics Materials Science Congress which was to be held from 26.04.2012 to 29.04.2012 in Turkey and similarly, sanction was granted for reimbursement of International Travel Grant to the applicant for attending training programme on IPv6 Infrastructure Security for Telecom Networks held during July 23-26, 2013 at Bangkok, Thailand. Further, the University of Bristol had offered study for the degree of 4 Computer Science (PhD) in the Faculty of Engineering.
Per contra, the application is vehemently opposed by the counsel for the State. It is submitted that the information was received that illegal prostitution is going on in Mayur hotel, accordingly, a decoy customer was sent and at that time, the applicant was sitting on the counter. The decoy customer was told by the applicant that some girls are staying in room no. 215 and the decoy customer can select anyone of them and informed that he will have to pay Rs.1,000/- and, accordingly, an amount of Rs.500/- was deposited with the applicant who also instructed that Rs.500/- be paid to the girl and, accordingly, the decoy customer was sent to room no. 215 along with staff member. When room no. 215 was opened, it was found that five girls were staying in the room. The raid was conducted. Five girls were found in room no. 215 whereas in room no.202, a girl and a boy in an objectionable condition were found and, accordingly, lady police officer allowed the girl to wear clothes and one empty packet of condom was also seized. It is submitted that in fact, the grand mother of the applicant is the proprietor of the hotel. At the relevant time, the applicant was sitting on the counter and he accepted Rs.500/- from the decoy customer. Without making any entry in the register, the decoy customer was allowed to go to room no. 215 to select the girl. It is submitted that in fact, the register as well as the computer has been hidden by the applicant which could not be recovered.
In reply, it is submitted by the counsel for the applicant that in fact, the register and the computer were taken away by the police, however, he also submitted that along with I.A. No.16668/2022 he has filed details of the information which was given by the hotel to the concerning police 5 station from time to time with regard to the details of the customers who had stayed in the hotel. It is further submitted that the girl 'A' who was recovered from room no. 202 had checked-in on 14.10.2022 and the said information was also given to the police. The applicant has also filed photocopies of the ID of the remaining girls who were recovered from room no. 215.
In response, it is submitted by the counsel for the State that it is clear from the documents which have been filed along with I.A. No.16668/2022 that the applicant never sent the information with regard to stay of five girls belonging to different places. The applicant also did not inform the police as to why the girl 'A' was staying continuously from 14.10.2022. The applicant has not explained as to why five girls were allowed to stay in a room without there being any entry in the register which clearly shows that those girls from different places of the country were brought to the hotel and were kept there in an illegal manner so that prostitution can be done.
Heard the learned counsel for the parties.
Without entering into the controversy as to whether the register as well as the computer has been seized by the police or it has been taken away by the accused persons, this Court would like to consider the information given by Mayur hotel to the police about the details of the customers who were staying in the hotel.
As per the information dated 14.10.2022, name of girl 'A' who was found in room no. 202 is mentioned and it is also mentioned that she has been allotted room no. 215. Thus, it is clear that the girl 'A' who is the resident of Delhi had checked-in on 14.10.2022 and was allotted room no.
6215. There are no details of remaining five girls. It is submitted by the counsel for the applicant that whenever the customers in group check-in in the hotel, then the name of first person is mentioned in the register and is communicated to the police and fairly admitted that the information which is being sent to the police does not contain an information as to whether the person who has checked-in is all alone or is accompanied by others also.
As per the decoy customer, he had selected the girl 'B' who is the resident of Bhopal. An amount of Rs.500/- which was given by the decoy customer to the girl was also recovered from the possession of the girl 'B' and a packet of condom was also recovered. From the details of the information of the customers given to the police, it is clear that no one from Bhopal had stayed in the hotel. Similarly, girl 'C' is the permanent resident of Devgarh, Police Station Devgarh, District Jharkhand and at present, she has disclosed her address as Sikandarpur, Gurgaon. The girl 'D' has disclosed her address as Vajirpur, North West, Delhi. The girl 'E' has disclosed her address as Betiya Champaran, Bihar and girl 'F' has disclosed her address as Subhash Nagar, Police Station Kotwali, Bhind. Why the girls of different places of the country were allowed to stay in a same room without there being any entry of their arrival in the register ?
So far as the contention that the applicant has been falsely implicated because the police was demanding weekly ransom from the hotel as alleged by the applicant is concerned, it is sufficient to mention that the said complaint will not have any bearing on the raid conducted by the police for the simple reason that even the applicant has not denied recovery of five girls from room no. 215 and a boy and a girl from room 7 no. 202 in an objectionable condition. Even the applicant has also filed ID proofs of five girls. From the photocopy of the ID proofs which have been filed by the applicant along with the bail application, it is clear that the applicant has deliberately filed ID proof of one girl twice in order to mislead that all the six girls had submitted their ID proofs.
Be that whatever it may.
Submission of ID proof is not sufficient unless and until the applicant shows that their entry in the register was also made or he shows that they had checked-in in the hotel along with some other customers. Furthermore, the recovery of five girls from one room specifically indicates that those girls were brought from the different parts of the country for some obvious reason and those girls had not come for tourist purposes or in connection with some work. Thus, when the recovery of the girls from the hotel has not been disputed by the applicant, then whether the grand mother of the applicant had ever made any complaint against the police or not, becomes immaterial. The counsel for the applicant could not explain as to why the details of the girls were not entered in the register and why the said information was not given to the police and why five girls from different parts of the country were allowed to stay in one room, i.e., 215.
Further when girl 'A' was allotted room no.215, then why other five girls were found in room no.215 whereas girl 'A' was found in room No.202. The details of boy found in room no.202 are not mentioned in the information given to police. Why room no.202 was allowed to be used by girl 'A' and customer has also not been explained. This shows that rooms were being made available to the boys and girls who were staying in 8 room no.215.
So far as the educational qualification is concerned, all the documents are in relation to offers made by some institutions, but whether the applicant pursued the said courses or attended any conference or not, has not been clarified. Merely because some online offers were made by different institutions situated in different countries would not mean that the applicant is an educationalist. Furthermore, the educational background of the applicant will not be sufficient to show his innocence specifically when the amount of Rs.500/- which was given by the decoy customer was also recovered from his possession. Whenever a person is allowed to occupy a room, then the hotel management is under obligation to make an entry in the register and since the applicant allowed the decoy customer to go inside room no. 215 and choose a girl without any entry in register, it prima facie shows that the applicant was involved in prostitution.
So far as the family background of the applicant is concerned, it is sufficient to hold that the same cannot be sufficient to take a view in favour of the applicant.
According to the prosecution case, girls were brought from different parts of the country for prostitution purposes. From the information of the customer dated 17.10.2022, it is clear that one customer who is resident of Gwalior itself had checked-in in the hotel. Why a local person having his residence in Gwalior had occupied the room has also not been explained.
Be that whatever it may.
In view of serious nature of allegation where the prosecution has 9 alleged that the hotel Mayur was being used for prostitution purposes and the girls from different parts of the country were brought for the said purposes and the applicant was arrested from the counter of the hotel itself, no case is made out for grant of bail.
Accordingly, the application fails and is hereby dismissed.
(G.S. Ahluwalia) Judge Abhi Digitally signed by ABHISHEK CHATURVEDI Date: 2022.11.01 18:17:16 +05'30'