Whoever sells, lets to hire, or otherwise disposes of any child with intent that such child shall at any age be employed or used for the purpose of prostitution or illicit intercourse with any person or for any unlawful and immoral purpose, or knowing it to be likely that such child will at any age be employed or used for any such purpose, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.
Explanation 1 — —When a female under the age of eighteen years is sold, let for hire, or otherwise disposed of to a prostitute or to any person who keeps or manages a brothel, the person so disposing of such female shall, until the contrary is proved, be presumed to have disposed of her with the intent that she shall be used for the purpose of prostitution.
Explanation 2 — —For the purposes of this section “illicit intercourse” means sexual intercourse between persons not united by marriage or by any union or tie which, though not amounting to a marriage, is recognised by the personal law or custom of the community to which they belong or, where they belong to different communities, of both such communities, as constituting between them a quasi-marital relation.
Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 98
Section 98 penalizes selling, letting to hire, or otherwise disposing of any child with intent that such child shall be employed or used for the purpose of prostitution or illicit intercourse, prescribing imprisonment extending up to ten years, and fine.
In anti-human trafficking operations (AHTU), invoke the statutory presumption under Section 98 BNS: if a child was handed over to a brothel manager or massage parlor operator for money, commercial sexual intent is statutorily presumed.