Law shields minors for giving false info, court lets off girls

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Aug 18, 2017 : The bar in law to prosecute minors for giving false information has led a Delhi court to let off two girls for filing a false rape case against their father.

 

As per the provision of the stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, no punishment shall be imposed on a child for giving a false complaint or false information, which is otherwise a penal offence.

Additional Sessions Judge Ashwani Kumar Sarpal acquitted the father of the two minor girls, who was accused of raping and sexually assaulting them, saying no offence was proved against him as his daughters -- aged 15 and 11 years -- have resiled from their statements.

"No doubt the complaint on which FIR has been registered is in the own hand writing of the victim (elder daughter) and both the victims had also given statement under the CrPC against the accused, from which they have now resiled.

"But these victims cannot be prosecuted for any perjury due to bar of Section 22(2) of the POCSO Act. Hence, accused is hereby acquitted of all the offences which are not proved," the court said.

The minors also deposed that they were pressurised by the police and an NGO to lodge a false complaint against their father.

The court said the girls had turned hostile and exonerated their father from committing any offence against them.

"From their testimonies, it is revealed that due to some quarrel in the family, as well as the fact that the accused was a bad character of the area, they were asked to give false complaint and statements so that the accused could be kept in jail for peace in the family," the court said.

The court closed the trial saying that no incriminating evidence has come in the statements of both the victims against the man and there was no need to record his statement.

A case was lodged against the man at the Preet Vihar police station in east Delhi in October 2015 on the complaint of the minors that their father was raping and sexually assaulting them for the last over two years. The police had got the statements of the girls recorded before a magistrate.


courtesy:DHNS