3 men cleared of POCSO case as court holds they were falsely implicated

Special judge Priti Kumar Ghule said that the story of rape was “made up” as the accused helped her mother to trace her and bring her back home. The court added that the doctors during the medical examination did not find anything indicating that the minor was sexually assaulted

Mumbai: A special POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) court recently acquitted three men, who were booked for raping a 16-year-old college student multiple times. The court said that the girl had falsely implicated the trio for helping her mother trace her when she was out with her friends and she was scolded in front of her friends for having alcohol.

HT Image

Special judge Priti Kumar Ghule said that the story of rape was “made up” as the accused helped her mother to trace her and bring her back home. The court added that the doctors during the medical examination did not find anything indicating that the minor was sexually assaulted.

“She is a college-going girl with the freedom to move with friends of her choice and enjoy birthdays and have vodka, as it is now a lifestyle of many teenagers. She was offended after her aunt and mother scolded her in the presence of her friends,” the special judge said, adding that she never made a complaint of rape.

“The girl, who is carrying a phone, is not receiving her mother’s call and avoids her. It is seen that as she is going out at night, she is reluctant to return home to avoid scolding by her mother. She is taking independent decisions of attending late birthday parties. She also had drinks. She had gone to stay at a friend’s house. She calls her boyfriends to take her. She is an independent girl exercising her freedom. She does not like being questioned by her mother about her whereabouts or scolding her for having vodka,” the court said.

On March 21, 2018, the mother of the teenager approached the police after she went missing. The three Ghatkopar residents – Arman Khan, a student, Amir alias Ayan Khan, a businessman, and Nilesh aka Sachin Sawant, who was working in a private firm – were booked after the girl returned home and gave a statement to the police on March 23, 2018.

In her statement, the girl claimed that, on March 17, 2018, she had gone to college to give an examination and later, she went to her friend’s house. The next day, she added that she went to Powai Garden where Sachin had called her to meet and they went to a godown where they had alcohol and when she was intoxicated, Sawant had sexual intercourse with her and at night he left her home.

Later, the girl claimed that the next day there was a sports day in her college and at 7pm, Arman called her and picked her up and they went to a shop of his friend, Ayan. She claimed that Ayan had got alcohol. After consuming alcohol, the girl claimed Ayan and Arman had sexual intercourse with her and left her at Ghatkopar station at 2:30am.

The girl claimed that she roamed around at night and went to her friend’s house the next afternoon. Later, on March 22, 2018, after receiving calls from her uncle, she went to her uncle’s house and then to her own house.

The court said the girl was questioned by her family members when the accused helped trace her at Dadar and took her to the police station. The court further said, the girl was found with the help of the accused as they were calling her to bring her back to her residence and due to which she had falsely implicated them.