K.P. Kirankumar @ Kiran v. State ; 2025 INSC 1473 - Minor Victim - Immoral Trafficking

Criminal Trial - Minor Victim of Trafficking - Evidence - While appreciating the evidence of a minor victim of trafficking, the Court ought to bear in mind: i. Her inherent socio-economic and, at times, cultural vulnerability when the minor belongs to a marginalised or socially and culturally backward community. ii. Complex and layered structure of organised crime networks which operate at various levels of recruiting, transporting, harbouring and exploiting minor victims. Such organised crime activities operate as apparently independent verticals whose insidious intersections are conveniently veiled through subterfuges and deception to hoodwink innocent victims. Such diffused and apparently disjoint manner in which the crime verticals operate in areas of recruitment, transportation, harbouring and exploitation make it difficult, if not impossible for the victim, to narrate with precision and clarity the interplay of these processes as tentacles of an organised crime activity to which she falls prey. Given this situation, failure to promptly protest against ostensibly innocuous yet ominous agenda of the trafficker ought not to be treated as a ground to discard a victim’s version as improbable or against ordinary human conduct. iii. Recounting and narration of the horrible spectre of sexual exploitation even before law enforcement agencies and the Court is an unpalatable experience leading to secondary victimisation. This is more acute when the victim is a minor and is faced with threats of criminal intimidation, fear of retaliation, social stigma and paucity of social and economic rehabilitation. In this backdrop, judicial appreciation of victim’s evidence must be marked by sensitivity and realism. iv. If on such nuanced appreciation, the version of the victim appears to be credible and convincing, a conviction may be maintained on her sole testimony. A victim of sex trafficking, particularly a minor, is not an accomplice and her deposition is to be given due regard and credence as that of an injured witness. 

Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 - Section 15 - At the time of search, the police officer shall call upon two or more respectable inhabitants of the locality, including a woman (who may not be a member of the locality) to attend and witness the search and may issue an order in writing to such persons to do so- Infraction of such provision is an irregularity and does not per se vitiate the trial unless it is shown that there has been a failure of justice. (Para 16)

Age Determination - date of birth recorded in the certificate from the school first attended by the victim would take precedence over medical opinion i.e. ossification test - Age determined through ossification test is a mere approximation and cannot be held to have better probative value than a certificate issued by the school.