A day after the Jalandhar rural police booked sub-inspector Bhushan Kumar, former Phillaur station house officer (SHO), for alleged inappropriate behaviour and making sexual advances towards the mother of a minor rape victim, the Punjab state Child Rights Protection Commission has written to the Jalandhar police to add sections of POCSO Act in the FIR.
The case has been registered under Section 74(1) (physical contact and advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 67(d) (guilty of sexual harassment in the course of duty) of the Punjab Police Act, and other sections of the IT Act at Phillaur police station.
The commission has also written to the child development and protection officer to take up the issue with the SSP, Jalandhar (rural), Harvinder Singh Virk, so that required sections of POCSO Act were added
Earlier, the Punjab state women’s commission took cognisance of the matter.
The SHO was transferred and suspended after his alleged audio clips and video recordings of the calls made to two separate victims went viral on social media platforms. In the audio clip, the officer was allegedly pressuring the victim’s mother to meet him alone. HT couldn’t independently verify the veracity of the audio clip.
The case dates back to October 5, when the family of the 14-year-old girl approached police and registered a rape case against an 18-year-old boy.
{{/usCountry}}The case dates back to October 5, when the family of the 14-year-old girl approached police and registered a rape case against an 18-year-old boy.
{{/usCountry}}However, instead of registering an FIR, the SHO allegedly refused to take action against the accused. In their complaint, the victim’s family alleged that their daughter was raped by an 18-year-old neighbour on the intervening night of August 23 and 24.
According to reports, when the victim’s kin reached the Phillaur civil hospital, the doctors told them treatment could only begin after alerting the police, as it was a criminal case. The doctors asked the victims to go to the Phillaur police station.
However, the SHO kept on insisting that there was no sexual assault and thus, no medical examination could be conducted, the victim’s family alleged.
The FIR was registered only after the matter was taken up by local social activists with senior officials.