But will the harassment go with it, is what sexual minorities in the city would like to know

Adult consensual sex is not an offence but police use it as a tool to harass sexual minorities, says city-based advocate B T Venkatesh.

Venkatesh cites the example of a young gigolo who was illegally detained by police for three days on the pretext of interrogation.

Instead of remanding him to judicial custody, they took the numbers of his clients whou00a0 included engineering contractors and businessmen. The police took the gigolo to their houses to identify them and threatened to book the "clients" under Section 377 if they did not pay up. Fearing dire consequences, the clients paid through their noses to avoid the case.

Venkatesh shares other cases where sexual minorities were ill-treated by the police. Most of the accused are now acquitted though some cases are still pending in court, he said.

Case 1: Hefty fines
In 2006, Madhumita and her friends were standing near a temple within Cubbon Park police station limits when a constable beat them up and took them to the police station. He registered a case under Section 377 and accused them of committing unnatural offences, spreading HIV, being a nuisance to society, being dangerous and so on. Instead of being chargesheeted under Sections 290 and 294 where the maximum fine is Rs 200, they were chargesheeted under Section 377 and remanded to judicial custody for two-and-a-half months. Later, the victims were released on bail after paying a surety of Rs 10,000.