MALAPPURAM: While Malappuram records a high number of Pocso cases every year, a disturbing trend of fake Pocso cases are also coming out from the district. The Malappuram Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and Malappuram Childline have so far identified four fake Pocso cases since January. The officials with the CWC and Childline said that ensuring punishments to people who level false child sexual abuse charges against others are equally important as ensuring punishments to the people who sexually abuse children.
In all the cases, disputes in family and relationships forced people to use children to file fake complaints against their partners and relatives. In the latest case, a person used his nine-year-old sister to take revenge against a woman. The person forced the girl to give statement before the police that the woman and her friend took nude pictures of her.
However, after receiving the complaint, the police presented the girl before the CWC for counselling on February 7. In the counselling, the girl revealed that the relative had forced her to give the statement. “The person recently spent 27 days in prison for allegedly raping the woman with whom he had earlier maintained a relationship. After coming out of prison, he forced the nine-year-old girl to give a statement against the woman at the police station,” said a source. The youth made the child to lie to police citing that ‘Padachavan’ (God) will forgive the lies of children. The CWC has handed over the counselling report to the police officer concerned.
In another case a woman in Ponnani forced her 13-year-old son last month to give statement that his father had tried to sexually abuse him. In this case, the wife, who lives with her 13-year-old son took advantage of Pocso case to get back her younger child who was staying with her father. “The wife wanted to claim that her daughter was unsafe in her husband custody by levelling a fake sexual abuse charge with the police,” the source said.
In Kalikavu, a man used his four-year-old daughter to give sexual abuse statement against his brother-in-law, while a woman in Parapanagadi used her four-year-old daughter to level a fake sexual charge against her father-in-law. “Internal conflicts in the family forced these persons to level fake sexual abuse charges. This dangerous trend should not encouraged,” said an official with the Childline. Malappuram CWC chairman Shajesh Bhaskar said filing fake POCSO cases by itself is a crime.