Malappuram: In a shocking revelation, it has come to light that efforts were being made over the past 10 months to settle outside court three cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) reported from Malappuram.
Sources said even family members of victimised children were colluding with enforcement agencies to get the culprits off the hook. Meanwhile, affected minors, who sought shelter at the government homes, are denied justice as the Child Welfare Committees (CWC) fail to empathise with them. Additionally, justice is delayed as there are no prosecutors in the High Court to exclusively handle cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences.
A new probe has been ordered by inspector-general of police (IG), Thrissur range, MR Ajith Kumar into the three cases.
Meanwhile, the officials, both at the shelter homes and the Childline India Foundation, feel that the affected minors are just a few of the many children denied support from the police or the authorities owing to their apathy. The NGO had rescued the minor girls involved in the cases.
Onmanorama looks into the three different cases that exemplify the failure of the system, both domestic and official, to give protection to the minors.
Mankada case
The FIR into the Mankada case was registered seven months ago. Shockingly, even the parents of the children are suspected to be accused in the case. It has been alleged that their two daughters, aged 7 and 12, were sexually exploited by the visitors at the house, with the knowledge of the family. They were brought to the shelter home of Mahila Samakhya Society (MSS) at Manjeri by the CWC. The accused was let off after the police claimed that the kids changed statement.
It has to be noted that the children's statements were taken in the presence of the parents, and they were not free to share their experience. Their mother followed them to the counselling sessions too, again blocking the children from revealing the facts.
The woman, who was an accused, was allowed to visit the home after a directive from the CWC. By then, the paternal grandfather sought custody of the kids through a habeas corpus. Since the CWC took the children to the shelter home, it was asked to take a decision after the High Court decided on the grandfather's plea. Meanwhile, MSS approached the Malappuram district collector over the move by the CWC to give consent to the grandfather and the decision was stayed. A petition has also been filed at the Manjeri sessions court. Both the kids are now happily attending classes in regular schools.
ACP MK Gopalakrishnan is the new investigating officer of the case.
Areekode case
The victim, a 10-year-old girl approached the shelter home, after facing sexual advances from her sister's husband in March. Soon after the girl reached the shelter, her mother, sisters and their husbands began to arrive at the home frequently to meet her and persuade her to withdraw the case and leave the shelter. Once, when the girl went to write the annual examination, the family kidnapped her and admitted her to a mental health hospital to claim that she was mentally challenged and her statements were not reliable. Thereafter, MSS intervened and complained to the district police chief and subsequently the girl was rescued and brought back to the government shelter. The family then approached the High Court, while the decision of the CWC was awaited.
In this case also, the mother followed her throughout the counselling sessions. The Manjeri organisation alleged that the vehicle of one of her brothers-in-law (not the accused) was used with the consent of the police to take the victim to the High Court. This girl is also housed in the same shelter of the MSS in Manjeri.
DySP Muhammed Arif is the new investigating officer.
Manjeri case
This 10-month-old case pertains to the alleged sexually assault of a girl by a government official with the knowledge of her mother. The complaint of the minor girl to the Childline in Manjeri was allegedly neglected by the police. The Childline and the shelter home officials alleged that police are trying to mislead the girl, once her statement was recorded. No case was registered and the man in doubt, escaped the place with a transfer and this case was also taken up to the notice of the range IG.
Crime Branch DySP Babu Thomas is investigating the case now.
Bid to scuttle cases
It is clear that efforts are being made in a coordinated way to scuttle the three cases. The police, CWC, doctors and lawyers are likely playing an active role to settle them out of court. Meanwhile, the children are forced to remain in the same unsafe atmosphere. However, Malappuram CWC chairman M Manikandan claimed that there were no pressure from the political parties or elsewhere, to settle the cases during his tenure.
Children vulnerable
There are no specific rules that ensure legal sanitisation of victimised children in care homes, especially if family members are suspects or accused. The rules do not specify how many visitors could be allowed or their frequency. Now, anyone, including suspects, could visit the victims if they carried a letter from one of the members of the CWC.
Legal expert and former member of the Kerala State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights Nazeer Chaliyam said child victims of POCSO cases were often influenced by the intimidating presence of accused family members. They were subject to emotional blackmail, thereby coaxing them to give weak statements to the police.
“I have listened to the woes of many children who underwent sexual exploitation by relatives and family members. I have given them advice ahead of their statement-giving. When they are exposed to the same individuals who instigated or perpetrated the crime, the case gets weak," he said.
"It is to be noted that the prosecution was successful when the victims were under institutional care, like in the Nirbhaya shelters. It is best to restrict visitors and avoid additional stress on the victims, since total restriction is not permissible. If they are letting a relative meet the victims in a shelter homes, it should be in the presence of an officer concerned like the district child protection officer,” he said.
Other lawyers whom Onmanorama spoke to said the onus was on the investigating officers to ensure that the statements of the victims were taken in total confidentiality. If need be, the prosecutors can seek specific directives from court to prevent the interference of the accused, especially if they were family members, the lawyers said.
Low conviction
Statistics attest to the fact that conviction is very low. Sources said this was due to the absence of a dedicated mechanism to investigate and prosecute crime against children. From 2013 to 2018, 60 POCSO cases were quashed by the High Court and the highest, 15, is from Malappuram. The conviction rate in Malappuram is just eight per cent, just 11 out of the 129 cases.
The number of cases convicted in the same period from other districts were also abysmally low: Alappuzha 2; Ernakulam 3; Idukki 1; Kannur 11; Kasaragod 4; Kollam 4; Kottayam 5; Kozhikode nil; Palakkad 7; Pathanamthitta 2; Thrissur 3; Thiruvananthapuram 2; Wayanad 1.