Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 22 Nov: Delay in filing of chargesheets by the state’s police department in Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act cases has led to the release of several accused persons on bail.
It has been witnessed in several recent POCSO Act-related cases that the investigating officers (IO) often fail to arrest the accused or the co-accused person(s) under appropriate sections of the law and most of the time fail to file the chargesheet in the court within the mandatory period of 90 days.
This failure indirectly favours the accused or the co-accused and delays the whole justice delivery system.
There are several instances of such failures on the part of the state’s police department.
On 2 November, the Khonsa (Tirap district) special court (POCSO) judge had to grant bail to an accused in the Diyun PS Case No 09/21 u/s 376/307/325/201 IPC, r/w Section 4 of the POCSO Act under Section 162 (2).
In this particular case, the IO failed to file the chargesheet within the mandated period and therefore the accused was granted bail by default.
Similarly, on 25 October, the Yupia west sessions division special judge (POCSO) had to grant default bail to the accused in the Itanagar WPS Case No 143/2021, u/s 376 IPC, read with Section 6 of the POCSO Act after the police failed to file a chargesheet within 90 days.
Further, on 3 November, the same court had to grant bail to the co-accused in the Itanagar WPS Case No 120/2021, u/s 376 (2) (f)/323/506/34 IPC, r/w Section 6 of the POCSO Act. In the petition, the special public prosecutor pointed out that the investigating officer of the case had failed to book the co-accused under appropriate sections of the law.
Also, on 5 November, the same court had to grant default bail to the accused in the Itanagar women police station case under Section 376 (3)/34 of the IPC and Section 6 of the POCSO Act, following the IO’s failure to file the chargesheet within the mandatory period.
While hearing the bail petition filed in the case, Yupia West Sessions Division Special Judge (POCSO) Nani Grayu in his order made these remarks: “After having seen a number of cases wherein accused persons were allowed to go on default bail in many cases like present one. This court is compelled to make some observations that under Section 173 of CrPC, it is mandatory to complete the investigation of the case within a period of two months and file the chargesheet in court. However, the capital police are failing to comply with this mandatory period of law in many cases. Therefore, the SP of the capital complex shall guide and instruct his officers for compliance with provisions of law to investigate the cases, especially the cases under POCSO Act and 376 of IPC.”
