Pocso court grants bail to man booked for kidnap

Exposure to available and varied content is provoking teenagers to enter into relationships, observed a special Pocso (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) court while granting bail to a 21-year-old who was booked after he eloped with a 15-and-a-half-year-old girl

Exposure to available and varied content is provoking teenagers to enter into relationships, observed a special Pocso (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) court while granting bail to a 21-year-old who was booked after he eloped with a 15-and-a-half-year-old girl.

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“Today teenagers are exposed to more sexual issues and lots of material is available to them to know about sexual relations between man and woman. Boys and girls both tend to get provoked. There can be curious and compelling demand to get in such kind of relationship. There is sexual maturation,” said special judge Priti Kumar Ghule, after noticing that the case was borne out of an affair.

The accused was allegedly in a relationship with the minor since two years before they eloped. On April 13 this year, the minor left the house on the pretext of going to meet her friend. She and the accused then went to Bihar and allegedly engaged in physical relation more than once. The parents of the girl had lodged a case of kidnapping. Later, the girl was traced and the accused was arrested.

Advocate Shabnam Shaikh, for the accused, argued that the girl was well above 15 years of age and had intelligence and maturity to understand the significance and morality associated with the acts. Photographs of them were referred to by the defence to show that they were in a relationship.

Considering this, the court granted him bail and observed, “The applicant is a 21-year-old young boy with no criminal antecedents. There was love relation for two years. There is no violent act. The girl has abandoned the house on her own on false pretext.”