Schoolgirl Killed In South 24 Parganas | HC pulls up police: add POCSO charges

The murder triggered violent protests in the area with villagers setting a police outpost on fire. Police, which registered a murder and kidnapping case, have arrested one person in connection with the girl’s death.

Taking up the plea of the girl’s parents seeking a second autopsy at a specially convened hearing on Sunday, Justice Tirthankar Ghosh of the Calcutta High Court expressed “high dissatisfaction” over the police not adding charges under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Citing the Executive Magistrate’s report, which hinted at the necessity of including the POCSO charges, Justice Ghosh asked why the police did not file a case under the POCSO Act despite the fact that the girl was less than 10 years old.

The High Court court directed the police to “immediately add the POCSO sections” and transfer the records to the Special POCSO court.

Additionally, the arrested accused would now be produced before the POCSO court instead of the CJM court.

Accepting the parents’ plea seeking an autopsy at a central hospital in the presence of a judicial magistrate, Justice Ghosh ordered that the second post-mortem should be conducted at AIIMS Hospital in Kalyani on Monday in the presence of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) of Baruipur court.“Only parents can watch the autopsy video if they want to. They can stay outside the autopsy room,” the court ordered.

If AIIMS Kalyani lacks the necessary infrastructure to conduct the post-mortem, it should be carried out at Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Hospital, also located in Kalyani, the High Court ordered. However, the post-mortem must be done by doctors from Kalyani AIIMS, not those from the state-run hospital, it added.

—With PTI Inputs