HC strikes down prosecution of POCSO survivor’s father

Bombay HC strikes down criminal proceedings against a man accused of giving false evidence in a POCSO case, as he and his daughter turned hostile.

Mumbai: The Bombay high court recently struck down criminal proceedings against a 51-year-old Pune resident, who was being prosecuted for giving false evidence, after he and his minor daughter turned hostile in a POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) case because of which the trial court had to acquit the man booked for sexually harassing the minor girl.

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Based on a complaint lodged by the wife of the man, the Bharti Vidyapeeth police station in Pune in January 2017 registered a POCSO case after their minor daughter informed them that a local resident was sexually harassing her while on her way to and back from her school.

A special POCSO court, however, acquitted the accused on April 22, 2022, primarily because the minor girl and her father – the 51-year-old petitioner – turned hostile and did not support the prosecution. The POCSO court concluded that the father of the girl might have settled the matter with the accused and therefore he gave false evidence and because of his pressure his daughter did not identify the accused in court – resulting in the acquittal of the accused.

The father had moved the high court after a judicial magistrate started criminal proceedings against him under section 193 of the Indian Penal Code for giving false evidence. In HC, a single judge bench of justice MS Karnik refused to accept the conclusions drawn by the special POCSO court.

“In my opinion, such an approach of the trial court is unwarranted,” justice Karnik said. “To assume that the accused must have settled the matter without any basis or material on record is unjustified. There can be any number of reasons as to why the victim and her father adopted such a course.”

“Having suffered the trauma, the victim and the appellant (her father) cannot be made to suffer such prosecution which is oppressive in nature resulting in a travesty of justice,” the bench said while striking down his prosecution.

The high court said that merely because the victim and her father turned hostile was not sufficient to conclude that he had intentionally given false evidence. “The perpetrator is scot-free, and it is the victims who find themselves in the dock. The present case cannot be regarded as a case for justifying proceedings against the appellant for giving false evidence. It is not as if the complaint against the accused was false,” the court added.