A POCSO court in Mangaluru has pulled up women’s police station Inspector AC Lokesh and his team for doing a shoddy investigation into a rape case of a minor girl and making the victim’s father wrongly languish in jail for months.
The court has ordered the Mangaluru Mahila Police officials to pay a compensation of Rs 5 lakh from their pockets to two persons in this matter.
Case:
The father of the victim was named as the lone accused in the chargesheet. However, as per a detailed New Indian Express report, Additional District & Sessions Court Judge KM Radhakrishna acquitted him, citing a number of serious lapses in the police investigation.
POCSO Court, Mangaluru
Some of the observations made by the court were as below.
DNA Report
At the outset, the court noted how the police gave a clean chit to three other accused in the case even before they received the DNA report.
The order pointed out that the IO cleverly ignored one Sandesh, whom the victim had earlier accused of rape, by not collecting his blood samples for the DNA test, which exposes his intention to protect him.
Victim changed her statements
The court then observed how the victim had changed her statements many times before finally accusing her father of being responsible for her pregnancy which was later terminated.
FALSE POCSO | Court Orders Minor Girl To Return Compensation After Two Men Spend 5-Years In Jail
Defence Arguments
The defence on the other hand argued that the statement was manipulated and influenced by the police as the endorsement did not bear the signatures of the staff of Balamandir from where the girl accused her father of rape.
Court Order
The court finally received the DNA report at the end of the trail. According to DNA experts, none of the three accused named in the FIR including the victim’s father were the biological father to the foetus of the victim. The court thus came down heavily on the investigating officer (IO) and remarked:
The IO blindly filed the chargesheet against the victim’s father only on the basis of the victim’s manipulated statement.
Court Grants Rs 1 Lakh Compensation To Man Who Spent More Than 6-Years In Jail For False POCSO Case
Judge Radhakrishna added,
The IO and his team have truly committed the impropriety to such an honour for their selfishness and indicates that they are a stigma to society. They shall be held responsible for the false implication of the innocent persons in the process of protecting the real and possible culprits.
Admittedly, the victim’s father and Prasad who have become real victims at the hands of IO are daily wagers. They were put behind bars for 8 months and 2 months respectively.
Court orders compensation to be paid by police officers
The court went a step ahead and ordered the IO and his team to indemnify the injustice by way of paying the compensation of Rs 4 lakh to victim’s father and Rs 1 lakh to Prasad within 40 days so that it could be a lesson for officers who are involved in such illegalities and lawlessness.
Holding the IO and his team responsible for investigation lapses, manipulation of documents, and misuse of power and position, the judge directed to forward a copy of the judgment to the principal secretary of home affairs and Mangaluru city police commissioner for necessary action against the erring officials.
Vishnu Tiwari | I Was In Jail For 20-Years In False Rape Case; My Body Is Broken & So Is My Family
Voice For Men India Take:
- Men who are falsely accused and who cannot afford good lawyers often end up languishing in jail for months/years
- Our legal system does justice, but many a times, lives of many innocent men are already ruined by the time the final order is given
- The court has set an example here against the police who allegedly hushed up the case and sent the victim’s father to jail randomly
- Many would argue that all involved in giving false statements, trashy investigation or manipulating evidences should be sentenced to jail for the same number of years, as the accused would have if convicted
- Currently, there are zero repercussions for filing false rape cases and most often, all that falsely accused men get, is a mere acquittal
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LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW:
#Mangaluru: POCSO Court Orders Mahila Police IO & Team To Pay Compensation For Wrongly Implicating Father Of Victim In Rape Case
🔹Compensation ordered:
▪️Rs 4 lakh: Father (8 months in jail)
▪️Rs 1 lakh: Another man (40 days in jail)#VoiceForMenhttps://t.co/BDDjTsjcbq— Voice For Men India (@voiceformenind) June 28, 2023
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