Editor,
The recent case of sexual assault at Govt. Residential School in Karo Village of Shi-Yomi district has rocked the state, and the fact that the accused got bailed and roamed freely was saddening. Only after the rigorous protest and mountain of criticism fell on the judgment of the judiciary system did the bail get cancelled and police took him into custody. Now, a prominent question arises: if this case comes under the POCSO Act and there are sufficient witnesses to testify to the crime that the accused has committed, then how on earth will he get bail?
Let’s understand what the POCSO Act is.
Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO) has been enacted to protect children from offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and pornography and to provide for the establishment of Special Courts for the trial of such offences and related matters and incidents. Provisions under this Act: 1) The Act defines a child as any person below the age of 18 years. 2) The Act recognizes that any form of sexual contact with a child is an offence, regardless of whether the child consented or not or whether the child was deceived or coerced. 3) It criminalizes all forms of sexual contact with a child, including penetrative contact such as his penis, any object, or any part of the body, to any extent, into the vagina, mouth, urethra, and anus of the child, or makes the child do so with him or any other person. Also, if he applies his mouth to the penis, vagina, urethra, and anus of a child or makes the child do so to such a person or any other person, it will be accounted for as a sexual assault. In non-penetrative acts, whoever, with sexual intent, touches the penis, vagina, anus, or breast of the child or makes the child touch the penis, vagina, anus, or breast of such a person or any other person, or does any other act with sexual intent that involves physical contact without penetration, is said to commit sexual assault. 4) A person is said to commit sexual harassment upon a child when such a person, with sexual intent, makes a child exhibit his body or any part of his body so that it is seen by such a person or any other person, or shows any object to a child in any form or media for pornographic purposes.
Sadly, all the above-mentioned codes have happened at the residential school in Karo, as revealed in one of the reports by Bengia Ajum published in The Arunachal Times.
Even after committing such a horrible crime, he was on bail, and no one knows how he can get bail! Whereas people like conman Asaram Bapu could not get bail in such a case even after hiring formidable lawyers like Ram Jethmalani, Subramanian Swamy and Salman Khurshid.
According to the 2020 NCRB report, in India, the court disposal of cases of rape shows that the conviction rate was 37.9% for cases under POCSO. The pendency for rape cases under IPC crimes against POCSO was 94.4%. The data is quite disappointing, but still, the brave victims and their families filed a complaint and put their trust in the police and judiciary. But in return, they only received disappointment and dissatisfaction.
The present condition shows that the police as well as the judiciary somehow fail to handle this case in the initial phase, which signifies that the knowledge on how to deal with POCSO cases among the police and judiciary is not very prevalent in Arunachal, which is a very worrisome development.
There is an urgent need to educate the police and the judiciary on the proper way to handle the POCSO cases, as well as in school, where the head of school and teachers need to inform the children about bad and good touch, sexual harassment, how to act accordingly, etc.
Now, the real battle has just begun. As the accused is dragged under the POCSO Act, the victims and their families have a long battle to fight, which is not going to be an easy one. However, through this case, the special court should set precedence by delivering judgment within 6 months or less, which will be an exemplary to all so that no one dares to repeat such a heinous crime.
Keyom Doni