Date:05/06/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/05/stories/2007060519210400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Judicial probe sought into attack on sex workers

Staff Reporter

Police accused of being bystanders during the incident

Protestors were seeking release of our arrested workers

Suspension of police officials involved sought

BANGALORE: "I told the police: `We sell our body, we earn money.' What is wrong with that? In response, they abused me verbally and did not protect me when I was being attacked by goondas." Geetha, a sex worker from Doddaballapur, broke down at a press conference organised by the Karnataka Sex Workers' Union on Monday as she recounted the events of June 3.

The union members alleged that as they protested in front of the police station at Channapatna on June 3, they were attacked by anti-social elements, even as the police stood as bystanders during the entire episode, and in some cases assisted the goondas.

Describing the attack, Ms. Geetha said that women who tried to run for cover in the buses that had brought them to the venue were forcibly pulled out and beaten.

"We were held by our saris, blouses and hair and dragged back and beaten," she said.The union had staged a protest asking that four women members who were arrested by the Channapatna police during a raid of a house in Mathikere village on June 2, be released. These women worked in Suraksha, a NGO working in Bangalore Rural district to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. "Stating that they were involved in immoral trafficking, the police arrested them and booked cases under Section 3,4,5 and 7 of the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act," said Elavarthi Manohar, a human rights activist.

He added that the sections they were booked under related to prohibition of running a brothel, soliciting customers in public, forcing people into sex work and have others live off money earned through sex work.

But none of these sections are applicable to these women as they were not indulging in any of these activities, Mr. Manohar claimed. The police even raided the office of Suraksha and went through clinical records and data of the sex workers without a search warrant. A private television channel was allowed to air images of the women arrested without seeking permission from the women, he alleged. "The next day when we staged a protest against these atrocities, the police asked us to leave. When we did not, we were attacked by about 40 goondas," he alleged. The union has demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident stating that they have lost hope in getting justice from the police.