NEW DELHI: Calling it a shocking and disturbing, the country’s highest court was seriously concerned about the increase in the number of cases of sexual assault by priests in Kerala.
The observation by a bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan came during the hearing of a case involving rape of a minor in a church by a Father in Kotiyoor in Malabar district of Kerala in 2016. The minor girl gave birth to a child in 2017 and immediately the child was handed over to a foundling home.
“It is disturbing that recently cases of rape are coming from churches in Kerala. It is shocking,” the bench remarked.According to the 2016 case, Kerala Police had registered a case against the priest, doctors who did surgery of the minor girl and the administrators of the children’s home. The priest is in custody and the case is on trial in a lower court in Kerala.
The State opposed the plea of doctors alleging them of being involved in the trafficking of the infant because they knew from the beginning that Father Robin has raped the victim when she was a minor and hence after the infant was born, the hospital wanted to cover it up. Senior counsel R Basant, who appeared for the two doctors and the administrator, sought for their discharge from the trial under the POCSO Act. He argued that these three accused had no direct link with the offence and that they should be discharged.
“If the doctors are also included in the offences under the POCSO Act, knowingly or unknowingly, it would set a wrong precedent and could create a situation where they don’t provide timely medical assistance,” he pointed out.
The court however refused to discharge the two other accused Fr Thomas Therakan (Chairman, Child Welfare Committee) and Sister Betty Jose (Member) after the state pointed out that they had knowledge that the baby was kept in the Foundling Home and had not taken any steps to surrender the child under the Juvenile Justice Act and dismissed their appeal.