BANGALORE: The city police have not been able to secure a single conviction under the Pocso Act since it came into force two years ago.
Every time a sex crime against a child is reported, policemen announce they are booking the accused under the stringent Pocso Act.
In all, 261 cases have been filed in Bangalore under the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Act, popularly known as the Pocso Act, since 2012. Trials have been completed and verdicts passed in 30, with all cases ending in acquittals.
Speaking to Express, K Ramanna, director of prosecution, said complainants who show interest in filing cases lose interest during the trial. In all 30 cases concluded, the victims turned hostile. “They give statements against the prosecution,” he rued.
In Bangalore, the 261 cases were registered between November 2012 and August 2014, the highest for the state. More than 850 cases are pending across Karnataka.
Recently, the High Court directed the government to appoint public prosecutors with a sound knowledge of the Act.
N M Bellakki, principal public prosecutor, estimates only 10 per cent of cases booked under Pocso Act are genuine. “The rest are cases of consensual sex,” he said.
In most cases, the girl is between 15 and 17, and the boy between 21 and 25. “Usually, they are in love, and when their parents come to know about it, they elope,” he said. The girl’s parents then register a case against the boy.
The law lays down that a girl below 18 can’t marry, and the police are forced to book a kidnap and rape case against the boy.
Almost always, the girl’s parents lose their nerve, and tell the girl not to identify the boy when he is called to the dock.
In some cases, after the affair, the girl is married to another boy, and the parents are terrified he and his family might torment her if they come to know about the police case. “So, they prompt the girl to turn hostile,” he said.
Before the Act
In one case, before the POCSO Act came into force, where the police secured a conviction, the victim had been raped by her father. Venkatesh, a resident of Papa Reddy Palya in Bangalore, had married a second time and his daughter from an earlier marriage used to live with him. His first wife was dead.
He allegedly raped his daughter for two years since she turned seven. The mother of his first wife came to know about it and filed a compliant in 2010. Police arrested Venkatesh and two brothers of his second wife, who also sexually abused the child.
Venkatesh was charged under Section 376 of the IPC (rape) and got 10 years in jail. The other two were charged under Section 354 (sexual harassment) and got seven years each.
This is the only case in which the accused were convicted and sentenced. “The victim gave a clear statement,” said Bellakki.
The medical report provides evidence of the sexual offence, but it can’t show who committed the crime. “It is ultimately the victim who has to identify the accused. If she says two sentences during the trial, that is enough to get a conviction,” he explained. Victims backtrack either because they have reached a compromise or fear trouble in the future. “These incidents are mostly reported from below poverty line families.”
Languishing
Suspects arrested under the POCSO Act are not eligible for bail.
They remain behind bars till the case is disposed of. “About 5 per cent of the cases are false. Yet, the accused spend years in jail,” Bellakki said.
Jails in the state are overflowing and it is also a waste of government resources to keep innocent people locked up, he remarked.