Acquittal of Pocso accused upheld

S Shyam Prasad | NT

Bengaluru:

The Karnataka High Court has upheld the acquittal of an accused under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (Pocso) after it found that it was a love affair with the alleged victim which her parents had opposed. The alleged victim had filed a complaint against her neighbour with whom she had a love affair and indulged in sexual acts while she was a minor.

Her parents were opposed to her affair and took her to a helpline and an organization to treat her for depression. She filed the complaint after she turned 18. The trial court, however, acquitted the accused. The State filed an appeal in the High Court. The High Court too ruled in favour of the accused.

“She (victim) admits that she had quarrelled with her parents that she would marry the accused only and did not heed to their advice and she was taken to a helpline and then to Surabhi Kendra and she was there for 1.5 years.

It was agreed that after completion of 18 years, marriage was to be performed, but the parents were not ready to give her in marriage and she had forced her parents and they agreed for the marriage. This shows that the victim had a love affair with the accused,” the court said while rejecting an appeal filed by the State against the acquittal of the accused.

The accused was charged under Sections 366, 342 and 506 of the IPC and under Section 6 of the POCSO Act by the Bhadravathi New Town police in 2015. The Additional District and Sessions Judge in Shivamogga had acquitted him in 2017. The appeal was filed in 2017 and the High Court of Karnataka division bench of Justice K Somashekar and Justice CM Joshi gave its judgment on November 9, 2022.

Though the alleged victim had herself filed the complaint against the accused, the HC noted that she had “stated that herself and the accused were residents of the same locality and they were having a love affair. The father of the complainant admits the love affair between the accused and the victim.

The trial Court, by considering the evidence, arrived at the conclusion that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove the guilt of the accused beyond all reasonable doubt,” the HC said. Dismissing the appeal, the HC said, “In the criminal justice delivery system, when doubt arises in the case of the prosecution, the benefit of such doubt should be given to the accused alone and not to the prosecution.”