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How TN is helping survivors get justice in Pocso cases
While thousands of cases under Pocso are pending across Tamil Nadu, a clutch of districts in the southern jurisdiction of the police have collectively devised a system by appointing one of their own as a “trial monitoring officer” for each case in the past few months.
When J Josephraja, a 49-year-old pastor, sought bail after being charged with sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl in a church in Tamil Nadu’s Rajapalayam, her voice would have gone unheard if not for the intervention of a compassionate “trial monitoring officer.”
The special court in Virudhunagar district for the trial of cases under (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012) Pocso Act rejected his bail and convicted him last month of rigorous life imprisonment.
While thousands of cases under Pocso are pending across Tamil Nadu, a clutch of districts in the southern jurisdiction of the police have collectively devised a system by appointing one of their own as a “trial monitoring officer” for each case in the past few months.
The trial monitoring officers assist victims from the time of filing an FIR, liaison between their department and the public prosecutor and witnesses until the case is disposed of in tight timelines.
“This is to bring a systemic change,” says Asra Garg, inspector-general of police, south zone of Tamil Nadu. “Victims usually have no role after a case is registered, whereas the accused is aware of every development. So the trial monitoring officer keeps the victims informed.”
An SMS in Tamil is usually sent to the victim’s family to keep them informed of what transpired during court hearings.
And most crucially, Garg says, these officers alert the victim’s family about upcoming bail petitions before the chargesheet is filed. This has helped in several cases for bail to be rejected.
This system has been applied in all ten districts of the state’s southern zone including Tenkasi and Tirunelveli city. “All these steps are being taken so that the victims and their families do not feel re-victimised and we can enable them to be empowered in the process of the criminal justice system,” says Garg. “It is victim centric, timeline driven, socially sensitive and legally compliant. The government of Tamil Nadu has directed us to enforce POCSO with due caution and to fast track investigation. The chief minister has also created a separate fund for providing assistance to victims. And our officers are ensuring that victims also receive compensation.”
In the case of the pastor, police said, the court rejected the bail because the survivor’s mother, the complainant, opposed it accompanied by the public prosecutor’s argument that the accused being more powerful would tamper with evidence and threaten the victim.
“In child sex abuse cases, if the victim is above 14, they can oppose bail applications, but since the victim had a mental disability, her mother came to court to oppose the bail,” says R Srinivasaperumal, superintendent of police (SP), Virudhunagar. “A maximum number of convictions are happening because of the appointment of the trial monitoring officers.”
This year, 48 cases booked under Pocso have ended in conviction in Virudhunagar district, says Srinivasaperumal.
On May 31, the special Pocso court in Virudhunagar convicted a 32-year-old man for raping a 15-year-old girl with mental retardation and physical disabilities.
Police said the incident occurred on February 27, and it ensured conviction in 94 days. On June 1, judge K Poorana Jeya Anand found the accused guilty and sentenced him to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment.
The court also ordered ₹10 lakh in compensation for the victim.
A 68-year-old man from Sivakasi was also awarded life imprisonment on June 6 after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting two minor girls. The chargesheet was filed within 39 days in this case.
In neighbouring Dindigul district, 33 cases have ended in conviction this year. . This year until March, the victims have received ₹1.96 crore as compensation. A minor girl was found four months pregnant, and her neighbour, a 43-year-old man, was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a special court in Dindigul in May.
“A sub-inspector or inspector is appointed as the trail monitoring officer so senior officials are also able to keenly watch how a Pocso case is unfolding,” says V Baskaran, SP, Dindigul district.
“For instance, if a witness is not strong enough during a hearing, the officer brings it to us, and we issue a memo for it to be corrected.”
However, the trial monitoring officer’s role is one of the many efforts that the police are making. Officers have been instructed to file the chargesheet within 60 days by prioritising heinous crimes, he says.
“Even if DNA reports are pending, we file a preliminary charge sheet and update it,” says Baskaran.
Another aspect is streamlining Pocso cases by not making arrests of boys in cases of elopement, or mutual romantic relationships, which activists for years have said results in a high pendency rate and higher acquittals, thus taking away attention from the “real” cases of rape, sexual assault of children.
“If you look at the pattern of Pocso in Dindigul, reported cases have increased from 47 in 2008 to 97 in 2022,” the SP adds. “Of the 97 cases, 61 are of those who eloped, 22 also under Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006. Only 14 are “real Pocso cases”, the SP says.
To streamline Pocso cases, the south zone police have implemented the instructions of Tamil Nadu’s Director General of Police (DGP) Sylendra Babu, who called for consultation with senior officials before arresting boys involved in cases related to mutual romantic relationships.
This directive, issued in December 2022 following a meeting of the Pocso and Juvenile Justice Committee of the Madras high court, seeks to ensure a fair and balanced approach that upholds the spirit of the law.
“80% of the Pocso cases booked in Tamil Nadu are elopement cases,” a senior official said, not wishing to be named.
Justice N Anand Venkatesh of the Madras high court had said that Pocso Act was not intended to penalise adolescents or teenagers in romantic relationships while quashing a case of a young couple in 2021 who had eloped.
Child rights activist and former convener of Tamil Nadu Child Rights Watch, S Andrew says that victim assistance is crucial. “In fact, POCSO Act mandates that there should be a “support person” for children to understand court procedure so it is a good model to have a police personnel supporting the victims and their families but they should be well trained to handle children and not visit them wearing uniform so that the families are not identifies,” says Andrew. In 2019, Chennai police had assigned 70 women officers who wore pink sarees under the Thozhi (friend) programme to assist POCSO case victims until trial is complete. “In several POCSO cases the victim and perpetrator live in the same locality which has resulted in victims dropping the cases out of fear. Only 30-40% POCSO cases end in conviction in Tamil Nadu so such support is important.”
