In a peculiar case, the Malur police in Karnataka has booked five men, found watching three nude women dancing in their hotel room, under section 370 of the IPC related to 'slavery'.
Though the police raided the hotel on March 20, the case came into the spot light after the Karnataka High Court, granted bail to two of the men this week after they spent a month in custody.
The police have since claimed that the women were brought from Andhra Pradesh.
The Bangalore Mirror reported that:
In the absence of specific laws to penalize people indulging in such acts, there is no option for the police but to charge the accused under existing laws, but which do not exactly pertain to them.
Speaking to the newspaper, an advocate said that the laws on prostitution in India were "contradictory, confusing and, of course, harsh at times," while adding that "Section 370 should not be invoked unless the police are sure that the women were trafficked."