High Court dismisses massage centre’s plea against police action

Chennai: The Madras High Court dismissed a petition filed by a private massage centre for quashing an FIR filed by the city police on charges of running a brothel under the guise of administrating a spa.

Justice AD Jagadish Chandira passed the order after hearing submissions made by Hasan Mohammed Jinnah, State Public Prosecutor. The petitioners – Hema Chowdri, KC Sushant and Ningreingam – spa owners, prayed for quashing the cases filed against them under sections (2) (a), 4 (1) and 5 (1) (a) of Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.

They said that there were several procedural lapses in the act of the police as the department had a personal vendetta against them. However, the judge rejected the contention.

“You’ve not submitted anything to say that you were not involved in any illegal act. But you’re levelling charges against the police department, as if there was a cold war between you and them,” observed Justice Chandira.

Jinnah submitted that the raid was conducted as said in Section 15 of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act. “A victim had already confessed before the trial courts saying that she was used for immoral activities by the petitioners,” he said.

On recording the submissions, the judge dismissed the petition filed by the spa management.