New Delhi:

The Delhi High Court has acquitted a man in a POCSO case, saying the use of the phrase “physical relations” by the minor survivor cannot automatically mean sexual assault.

A bench of Justices Prathiba M Singh and Amit Sharma allowed the appeal by the accused, who was given imprisonment for the rest of his life, and observed that it was unclear how the trial court concluded that there was any sexual assault when the survivor had voluntarily gone with the accused.

The court asserted that the leap from physical relations or “samband” to sexual assault and then to penetrative sexual assault must be established by evidence and cannot be deduced as an inference.

“The mere fact that the survivor is below 18 years cannot lead to a conclusion that there was penetrative sexual assault. The survivor, in fact, used the phrase ‘physical relations’, but there is no clarity as to what she meant by using the said phrase,” the court said in the judgment passed on December 23.

“Even the use of the words ‘samband banaya’ is not sufficient to establish an offence under Section 3 of the POCSO Act or under Section 376 IPC. Though consent would not matter if the girl is a minor under the POCSO Act, the phrase ‘physical relations’ cannot be converted automatically into sexual intercourse let alone sexual assault,” it held.

The court said the benefit of doubt ought to be in favour of the accused and, therefore, ruled, “The impugned judgement completely lacks any reasoning and also does not reveal or support any rationale for the conviction. Under such circumstances, the judgment is liable to be set aside. The appellant is acquitted”. 

The complaint in this case was lodged in March 2017 by the minor girl’s mother, alleging that her 14-year-old daughter had been lured and kidnapped from her home by an unknown person.

The minor was found in Faridabad along with the accused, who was arrested and subsequently convicted for offence of rape under IPC and penetrative sexual assault under POCSO in December 2023 and later awarded imprisonment for the remainder of his life. 

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Jaipur:

A government teacher has been arrested in Rajasthan’s Tonk for allegedly molesting and showing obscene videos to the girls of class 5, police said on Monday.

The education department has suspended the accused teacher, they said.

Laiq Ahmed Qureshi, a teacher working in Gopalpura village was produced in court on Monday and has been sent to judicial custody for 15 days, police said.

Niwai police station in-charge Hariram Verma said that a case was registered on Friday against Qureshi by the families of two girls studying in Class 5.

The incident occurred on September 10 when Qureshi allegedly molested the girls and showed them obscene videos on his mobile phone, Mr Verma said.

They accused him of molestation and showing obscene videos to the girls on September 10, Mr Verma added.

He said that a case was registered against Qureshi under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. He was arrested on Sunday. Further investigation is underway. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Palghar:

Police have arrested a school teacher for allegedly raping a 14-year-old student on several occasions at his private tuition in Nalasopara of Maharashtra’s Palghar district, an official said on Tuesday.

Angry parents and relatives of the girl along with several others held a protest this morning outside the school, where the accused is employed as a teacher, and blamed its management for “shielding” him. The minor studies in the same school.

The accused, identified as Amit Dubey (30), was arrested on Monday, he said.

“The crime took place between March and July this year. The accused called the survivor to his tuition centre at home on some pretext and raped her. He indulged in the crime on multiple occasions,” senior inspector Jitendra Vankoti of Pelhar police station under the Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar police commissioner said.

Based on the complaint filed by the girl, a case was registered against Dubey under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 64 (2) (f) (being a relative, guardian or teacher of, or a person in a position of trust or authority towards the woman commits rape on such woman) and 65 (1) (rape of a woman under sixteen years of age), and also under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the police official said.

After coming to know about the crime committed by the teacher, hundreds of parents of school students assembled outside the institution and held a protest shouting slogans against its management and the accused.

Talking to reporters, the survivor’s brother claimed that the accused sexually abused several other students and teachers.

He claimed that the accused raped his sister not only at his tuition centre but also in the school.

Her parents alleged that she had complained to the school management about the arrested teacher, but they asked her to keep quiet.

The management of the school kept everything under wraps and did not even inform anyone about the victim despite her falling unconscious. They demanded that offences be registered against the school management for shielding the teacher.

In view of the protest by the parents, police personnel were deployed in and around the school. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Mumbai:

Terming the act as “barbaric and inhuman”, a court in Mumbai on Tuesday awarded a death sentence to a transgender person for raping and murdering a three-month-old girl.

Society’s fabric gets damaged beyond repair due to such crimes, observed Aditee Kadam, special judge for cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).

A co-accused was, however, acquitted as the prosecution could not prove the case against him beyond reasonable doubt.

As per the prosecution, the 24-year-old accused abducted the girl who lived in a nearby house and murdered her after sexually assaulting her in July 2021.

He committed the ghastly act as the victim’s family could not offer him the customary “vadhai” (gift) after the child’s birth on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, the prosecution said.

The accused (name not disclosed to protect the victim’s identity) had asked for a saree, Rs 1,100 and a coconut.

The court held that his motive was to create terror in the neighbourhood so that no one would dare refuse to offer gifts to him.

Injuries found on the body of the “totally defenceless” victim reflected “extreme brutality and depravity”, it added.

“Safety of a girl child is of paramount importance to society…Accused had planned to commit the crime and executed it meticulously,” the judge observed, noting that he buried the body in a marshy area to destroy evidence.

“Barbaric and inhuman manner of committing offence made it the ‘rarest of rare case’. It is a crime that would send a chill down the spine of every parent of a girl child, especially in a poor locality,” the court said.

The perversity in the crime was an aggravating circumstance, and there were no grounds to show leniency to the accused “who has no repentance”, it added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The Law Commission has advised the Centre against lowering the age of consent from 18 to 16 under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, arguing that doing so will have a negative impact on the fight against child marriage and child trafficking.

The panel has, however, said it considers it necessary to bring about amendments in the Act to “remedy the situation” in cases in which there is tacit approval from children aged between 16 and 18. It said “guided judicial discretion” can be applied in such cases.

In December last year, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud had urged parliament to address growing concerns related to the age of consent under the POCSO Act. 

In its report to the Law Ministry, the 22nd Law Commission of India has said, “After a careful review of existing child protection laws, various judgements and considering the maladies of child abuse, child trafficking and child prostitution that plague our society, the Commission is of the measured view that it is not advisable to tinker with the existing age of consent under the POCSO Act.” 

The panel, which is headed by Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, former chief justice of the Karnataka High Court, said it had considered all the views and suggestions given in connection with cases involving those between the ages of 16 and 18.

“The Commission considers it necessary that certain amendments need to be brought in the POCSO Act to remedy the situation in cases wherein there is tacit approval in fact though not consent in law on part of the child aged between 16 to 18 years,” the report said. 

The panel said it was of the considered opinion that such cases do not merit being dealt with the same severity as cases that “were ideally imagined to fall under” the POCSO Act.

“The Commission, therefore, deems it fit to introduce guided judicial discretion in the matter of sentencing in such cases. This will ensure that the law is balanced, thus safeguarding the best interests of the child,” it added.

The recommendations of the Law Commission are not binding, and will be studied and taken into consideration by the government, which will take a final call. 

‘Poses Difficult Questions’

Speaking at an event in December last year, Chief Justice Chandrachud had spoken about judgments of the POCSO courts in ‘romantic cases’ – involving consenting adolescents engaging in sexual activity.

“As you are no doubt aware, the POCSO Act criminalises all sexual activity for those under the age of 18 regardless of whether consent is factually present between the two minors in a particular case. In my time as a judge, I have observed that this category of cases poses difficult questions for judges across the spectrum. There is growing concern surrounding this issue, which must be considered by the Legislature in light of reliable research by experts in adolescent healthcare,” said the CJI.

He had said there is a culture of silence around sexual abuse of children and the state must encourage families to report abuse even where the perpetrator is a family member.