Mumbai: A family court judge, appointed by the Bombay High Court to supervise the condition of a womens` shelter home in suburban Mumbai, in her report has said police should not conduct "impromptu" mass rescue operations and that it should be done with proper planning.
In her 40-page report submitted to the High Court today, Swati Chouhan has said, "The special police officer conducting mass rescue operations while busting prostitution rackets should do so with proper planning. For such operations, pre-planning and networking with the stakeholders must be done invariably. An impromptu operation does not do any good and it ultimately makes the exercise futile."
A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice Nitin Jamdar had appointed Chouhan while hearing a suo moto (on its own) public interest litigation regarding the poor condition of the Navjeevan Mahila Vastigruhan shelter home in suburban Mankhurd.
Chouhan has recommended that for such operations, the state government should associate a non-official advisory body comprising of social workers from the area to assist the police officers. This, according to Chouhan, would be in accordance with section 13 (b) of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act.
The report also recommends that magistrates must verify that no victim woman is detained in such a shelter home for more than three weeks, unless a detention order is passed against her.
The report also mentions that the staff provided by the Women and Child Welfare department is not trained and capable of dealing with emergency situations.
On the allegations of men illegally entering the shelter home in the night and sexually abusing the inmates, Chouhan said that there was "trespass committed by someone" at the shelter home but further probe was required into this.
While posting the matter for hearing tomorrow, the bench asked the state government to examine the report.
PTI
