Unmarried couples forced from Mumbai hotels accused of 'indecent public behaviour' by police

Mumbai’s police chief has ordered an investigation into raids on hotels and lodges in the city’s suburbs in which unmarried couples were pulled out of their rooms and accused of “indecent public behaviour.”

According to the Hindu newspaper, many of those found in the rooms were students, and some reports say that a number of women were made to call up their parents.

Thirteen couples were apprehended, though all were released after a few hours in custody and the payment of a fine amounting to US$18.

There is no law against unmarried couples sharing a hotel room in India.

The Supreme Court has said that live-in relationships between unmarried couples are neither a crime nor a sin in the country.

Indian laws offer a broad remit for police officers investigating prostitution, however, which may have allowed the officers in this case to raid the rooms. And hotels often refuse rooms to unmarried couples.