Court discharges woman accused of sexually harassing a minor boy giving benefit of doubt
Feb 10, 2022
New Delhi [India], February 10 : In one of its kind case, a woman in her 20s has been discharged by a Delhi Court on the allegation of sexually harassing a minor boy.
The Court discharged her giving the benefit of doubt. The court also found the birth certificate of the victim forged.
On the other hand, the bone ossification report proved that he was not a minor at the time of the alleged incident. She was booked and arrested under POCSO Act by the Delhi Police. She was granted bail after 70 days of judicial custody.
Special POCSO Judge Kumar Rajat discharged the woman saying, "In this matter benefit of doubt need to be given to the accused and the upper limit of 20 years is taken as the age of the victim.
The court in an order dated 8 February said that in this case, an ossification test was conducted on 17 June 2021 and the alleged incident is of January 2020. Even if the age of the victim is considered 20 years on 17 June 2021 and two years are deducted from the same, then the date comes as 17 June 2019, the date on which the victim was major, so after six months in January 2020, he was definitely a major and not a child.
The court said that no offence under section 4 POCSO Act is made out against the accused. This court has no jurisdiction to try the present case and since the charge sheet was filed under sections 328/379/506 also, the case is required to be transferred to the Sessions Court for trial in accordance with the law.
The present case was lodged at Police Station Paschim Vihar East on the direction of the Metropolitan Magistrate. The family of the victim approached the court with a complaint which alleged that he was sexually harassed in an abbreviated condition in a hotel room by the woman accused. They also alleged that she had stolen money from the victim and also threatened him.
They had claimed that the victim was a minor according to the birth certificate issued by the MCD. On this complaint, a direction to lodge FIR was passed by the Magistrate.
After investigation, the Delhi Police had filed a charge sheet under section 4 of POCSO and other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Advocate Tarun Narang, counsel for the accused, raised serious doubt on the birth certificate of the victim. The Special Court had ordered for an age enquiry on his submissions.
During the enquiry, the birth certificate was found forged and the record thereof was not found at the Civil Zone, MCD office and contradictions were found in the birth certificate issued by a hospital at Hisar, Haryana. Court has also ordered the Bone Ossification test of the victim. In this test, he was found to be a major.
