Madurai: The Madurai bench of the Madras High court on Friday directed the hapless Bangladeshi woman, a victim of alleged immoral trafficking, to leave for her country by obtaining an exit visa from the Kanyakumari district police superintendent (SP).
The division bench comprising Justices R Subbiah and J Nisha Banu also directed the police to hand over Rs 24,000, a mobile phone and silver anklet seized from her and kept under the custody of judicial magistrate court-I.
As the victim needs to pay Rs 7,880 for granting exit visa, advocate T Lajapathi Roy, who appeared for the woman, requested the court to adjust the amount from the cash the police seized from her.
The counsel took pains to point out that the police instead of treating the woman as victim of immoral trafficking, had instead arrested her from the hotel. When she was produced before the judicial magistrate on July 24, 2016, the court treated her as ‘victim’ and had directed the police to admit her in a home run by an NGO, said Lajapathi Roy, adding that her passport had remained valid at the time of the arrest.
However, the public prosecutor argued that women involved in this offence were treated as 'victims’ and they were produced before the court. When she was produced before the court, the woman stated she was a resident of Bengaluru.
Only when her father Shamsel Shailk filed a petition before the judicial magistrate, the police learned that she was a resident of Bangaladesh and her original name, claimed the PP. Following the directions from the magistrate to take necessary steps to get extension of visa for the victim, the Kanyakumari SP also had contacted the foreigner regional registration officer, Chennai.
As per the rule, in this case if she intends to obtain exit visa, she has to upload her passport, visa details in the prescribed format along with a sum of Rs 7,880 as a penalty for her overstay. Then the SP would submit the proposals to the FRRO, Chennai, for regularising her overstay and to grant her exit visa. Recording the submissions, the court directed the Bangladeshi woman to apply for exit visa through the SP. The woman along with her father appeared in the court today.
