Mindset of police towards spas must change, says Madras high court

CHENNAI: Banning cross-gender massage will not guarantee end of illegal sex trade, as gay and lesbian practices are on the rise, Madras high court has said. Sexual favours are no longer a heterosexual domain, hence these may continue even in a same-gender scenario, it added.

Justice N Anand Venkatesh, making the observation while ordering Rs 2.50 lakh compensation to a woman massage therapist whose reputation was defamed by police action in a spa she was working, said: “There are rotten apples in every business and stringent action must be taken against them. However, police must get out of this mindset of painting all massage centres and spas as brothels.”

As for the compensation paid to the woman who lost her livelihood, the judge directed police department to recover the amount in instalments from the personal funds of inspector of police attached to Chennai anti-vice wing of the department.

Justice Anand Venkatesh was passing orders on a batch of petitions filed by spas and massage parlours, as also the massage therapist, to quash the FIRs registered against them and order release of therapists kept in government homes.

The police should conduct the investigation in a more professional manner in accordance with the provisions of the Act and arrangements should be made for maintaining direct observations on the premises and evidence of such observations should be recorded. Even if traps are resorted to, other evidence collected over a period of time on the observations made on the premises/centre, should also be adduced to strengthen the impression or inference of the continuous of the use of the place as a brothel.

Pointing out that the ‘so-called confessions’ taken from the victims is verbatim identical in all the cases and the magistrate concerned has proceeded to send them all, in a routine manner, to the government home, even without enquiring the genuineness of the facts projected by the police, Justice Anand Vekatesh said: “It is high time the magistrates dealt with these types of cases with more sensitivity and ensure that genuine spas and massage centres are not labelled as brothels.”