HYDERABAD: A local court acquitted a 45-year-old law officer who had been accused of sexually assaulting his 14-year-old daughter in a case registered under the POCSO Act.
The Narsingi police had registered a case in November 2020 based on a complaint by the minor, who alleged that her father had subjected her to mental harassment and sexual abuse for nearly a year. She claimed that the accused had touched her inappropriately, used abusive language and threatened her not to disclose the incidents to anyone. According to the complaint, the alleged incidents occurred at their house between August 2019 and August 2020.
During the trial, the girl’s mother, a government teacher, told the court that she had earlier filed nearly 20 complaints and representations against her husband before the police and other authorities due to family disputes. The defence argued that the POCSO case was also filed as part of those disputes.
During cross-examination, the witnesses admitted that in September 2020, two months before the POCSO case was filed, neither the girl nor her mother had made any allegations of sexual assault against the accused.
The defence counsel also noted that the minor’s siblings were present in the house during the alleged incidents, but the investigating officer did not examine any of them as witnesses. The mother told the court that the other children had no knowledge of the alleged incidents. The defence further argued that the alleged incidents were said to have occurred during the COVID-19 lockdown when all family members were at home, and if such incidents had taken place, it was likely that others in the house would have seen or heard them.
The mother also admitted during cross-examination that in a 2018 case, she had submitted an affidavit before a local court stating that she had earlier made false allegations against the accused out of frustration and later withdrew them unconditionally. It was also noted that a dowry harassment and attempted murder case registered against the accused in September 2020 had been closed by police as false after investigation, just a week before the POCSO case was filed.
The defence counsel further submitted that in March 2021, the girl, her mother and her siblings had called the accused asking him to return home and live with them. The counsel argued that such a request would be unlikely if the alleged sexual assault had actually occurred.
The court held that the evidence given by the minor girl and her mother contained material omissions and inconsistencies and therefore could not be relied upon. Observing that the prosecution failed to establish the foundational facts required to draw presumptions under Sections 29 and 30 of the POCSO Act, the court concluded that the allegations were not proved beyond a reasonable doubt and acquitted the accused.