A woman, who had been accused of exploiting two female Bangladeshi performers at a Hindi music pub she managed, was acquitted of four of her charges on Wednesday following a trial.

Khema Bhatta's charges were said to involve two 25-year-old Bangladeshi women, who cannot be named due to a gag order to protect their identities.

The 33-year-old Nepalese had claimed trial to two charges under the Prevention of Human Trafficking Act. She was accused of abusing her power and exploiting the pair. She was also accused of two counts of retaining the women's passports.

These purported offences allegedly took place between June 2015 and February 2016.

On Wednesday, District Judge Mathew Joseph gave Khema a discharge amounting to an acquittal, stressing that he did not find the two Bangladeshis to be credible witnesses, and their testimonies were "riddled with inconsistencies".

Khema and her Singaporean husband, Balakrishnan Jaganathan, 56, first appeared in court in 2016.

They were also the first people in Singapore to be charged with labour trafficking under the Act. Balakrishnan's cases are also still pending. He was the director of the music pub while she was a manager there.

Khema was represented by lawyer R. Thrumurgan from Trident Law Corporation. In his submissions, the lawyer said that the two Bangladeshi women had taken "great pains" to cast serious allegations against his client.

The two women claimed that they had been subjected to daily strip searches and were given "limited food". The pair claimed they had been kept in a "jail-like situation".

Mr Thrumurgan disputed these allegations and referred to a video footage shot on Oct 6, 2015, which showed a group of performers, including the pair and Balakrishnan.

The lawyer added that in the clip, one of the women was seen reaching out to Balakrishnan, referred to as "Balan", before kissing him on his cheek.

"This is telling of the relationship between Balan and the performing artistes," Mr Thrumurgan said.

He also said that Ministry of Manpower officers conducted an inspection the next day to ascertain if the pub's employees were indeed confined and not allowed to leave their employment.

"There were no complaints by any of the performing artistes," said the lawyer.

The prosecution filed an appeal against the district judge's decision on Wednesday.

Khema faces 10 other similar charges still pending, with the pretrial conference scheduled for June 16.