MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court has upheld the trial court’s life conviction of a pastor on charges of sexually assaulting an intellectually disabled minor girl in 2022 inside the church in Virudhunagar.
A division bench of justices GK Ilanthiraiyan and R Poornima dismissed the appeal filed by the convict, Joseph Raja, against the order of the Special Court for Exclusive Trial of Cases under the Pocso Act in Virudhunagar in 2023.
The court said the survivor was briefly left in the church under the care of the pastor by her mother, where she was sexually assaulted in May 2022. Though the incident had taken place eight days before the official police complaint was lodged, the court also refused to believe the survivor was tutored to depose against the appellant, despite the appellant’s claim of previous enmity and lack of proof for the sexual assault. The prosecution had added that the accused exploited her vulnerability.
The court, while addressing the delay in lodging the complaint, observed that society is yet to overcome the stigma and moral judgment that continue to attach themselves to such disclosures.
“Even when a victim musters the courage to speak, she may not always find encouragement or even acceptance from her own parents, who may view such disclosure as undesirable or damaging. To overcome these deep-rooted psychological and social barriers and to ultimately approach the police is neither immediate nor effortless; it is a process that understandably consumes time,” the court said, mentioning the natural hesitation a woman experiences in speaking about the sexual trauma, particularly when it’s by someone close to her family, not a stranger.
The court said medical evidence showed no injuries and no evidence of recent intercourse, but confirmed that the hymen was not intact. The court thinks that all the discrepancies pointed out by the appellant are minor and do not shake the core of the case. This court finds no perversity, illegality, or misappreciation of evidence warranting interference with the well-reasoned judgment of conviction, the judges added.