The Bombay High Court on Tuesday expressed surprise at the insensitivity shown by the police while dealing with the sexual assault of two girls by a sweeper at a school in Badlapur. “The Act (POCSO – Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) has everything. The issue is of its implementation,” the bench said. The court said that a committee should be formed to prepare standard operating procedures (SOPs) for police, hospitals, schools when cases of sexual assault on minors come to light.
Advocate General of Maharashtra Birendra Saraf submitted a copy of the timeline drawn up to show the sequence of events in the case. A bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Prithviraj Chavan studied the document and found that the Badlapur police had called the minor victims and their parents to the police station to record their statements, which is a complete violation of the POCSO Act, according to which the police must record the statements of the victim and family at their residence.
Saraf said, “I cannot justify this. This is why the policemen were suspended. We also feel that the Badlapur police should have handled the matter quickly and sensitively.”
Further, the bench said that the minor victims were made to undergo several medical tests and some of these were conducted by male doctors. “How can the police send them for examination by male doctors. Even the hospital was not sensitive towards the issue,” the bench said.
Apart from this, the bench said that the school principal has been made the accused because under the POCSO Act it is mandatory to report the incident to the police, which was not done. However, the class teacher of both the children was not made the accused, rather the investigators made him a witness. The bench questioned why this was done?
Saraf said that the reason for making the teacher a witness and not an accused was that he had informed the principal about the incident. However, the bench said that under POCSO it is mandatory for the teacher to also inform the police, which did not happen. Saraf assured the court that if their role in the case is made clear, no one will be spared.
The bench also warned social media users against revealing the name of the victim’s school, and reiterated that neither the school nor the areas related to the case can be disclosed under POCSO.
The bench said that there is a problem in the implementation of the Act which is not being followed and hence there is a need to set up an SOP for police personnel, schools and all the institutions dealing with such matters so that such cases can be identified when they come to light.
Saraf said that a committee has already been constituted under the government proposal of August 23, which is to submit its report on August 27 itself. The bench suggested that another committee consisting of retired judges, retired IPS officers like Meera Borwankar, educationists, especially school teachers with long experience in the field, can deliberate to formulate this SOP.
After this, the bench adjourned the hearing of the suo motu petition till September 3, when some names will be suggested to form a committee based on the views expressed by the bench. Advocate Kavisha Khanna, representing the victims and their families, said that there has been a serious lapse on the part of the police, which she wants to highlight in the next hearing.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)