© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Journalism of Courage
Premium
‘How insensitive has your police become? This kind of incident we never expected in a so-called metropolitan city’: CJI slams Gurgaon Police while hearing POCSO case
3-year-old child who was allegedly sexually assaulted in Gurgaon highrise was kept for 30 minutes with the accused in a closed room, Mukul Rohatgi tells SC. ‘Very disturbing’, CJI Surya Kant responds
The case came to light on March 16, when the girl managed to call her sister using someone else's phone (File image)
The Supreme Court on Monday (March 23) expressed concern over the fact that a Gurgaon Magistrate had allegedly recorded the statement of a three-year-old victim of sexual assault in the presence of the accused.
This was “very disturbing”, a three-judge bench presided over by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant said after perusing the affidavit filed by the father of the minor narrating how the examination had proceeded.
The court directed the District and Sessions Judge, Gurugram, to “seek the comments of the Magistrate” and forward the report to it.
The court took up the matter after Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi mentioned before the CJI on Friday that the parents of the child had been “running from pillar to post” and “not a thing has happened [by way of arrests] in four weeks [since the FIR was registered]”.
Rohatgi asked the CJI to hand over the investigation to the CBI “or an SIT under the directions of the Supreme Court”.
“Affidavit filed by the father of the victim shall be sent through special messenger to the District and Sessions Judge, Gurugram, in a sealed cover. The…judge shall obtain the comments of the judicial magistrate in her chamber and send those comments in a sealed cover to this court,” the Bench, also comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, said on Monday.
The court also directed the Gurgaon Commissioner of Police and the Investigating Officer (IO) to appear before it with full records of the investigation on March 25.
Story continues below this ad
On Saturday, the Gurgaon Police arrested three individuals, including two women who worked as domestic helps in the child’s home in a highrise residential complex, for the alleged sexual assault.
On Monday, the CJI said: “Yesterday we read in newspapers that they were only arrested yesterday. What were they (police) doing so far?”
Appearing for the parents, Rohatgi said, “For one and a half months, this girl of three years is taken to a police station to record statement, to the Child Welfare Committee’s (CWC) office when law says CWC should come to her house, then medically examined at one place, then told to go to civil hospital, parents land up there at 9 pm.”
“The magistrate is asking the girl of 3 years, ‘Isko oath toh samajh nahin aayega, tum sach bolo, sach bolo (She won’t understand oath. Just tell the truth), and the three accused are standing in the same room…The child is already in trauma,” Rohatgi said.
Story continues below this ad
The child’s statement had been recorded by the CWC without her parents being present, Rohatgi said. “[For] 30 minutes, four unknown women [were] with the child in a closed room.”
To a query from Justice Bagchi, Rohatgi said the mother was present when the Magistrate recorded the child’s statement, but she was not allowed when the CWC was recording the statement.
He mentioned that the first IO in the case had been suspended for taking a bribe in another case of a sexual offence against a child (POCSO case).
“What kind of insensitive your police have become?” the CJI asked. “You have done nothing great in the past also. This kind of incident we never expected, that too happening in a so-called metropolitan city.”
Story continues below this ad
Rohatgi said the child cannot be confronted with the child, and that the law says that there has to be a screen. Justice Bagchi said: “In these kinds of situations, what you do is you identify through photographs.”
“We requested that they (CWC) should come home. They refused. At CWC, the child’s mother was not allowed. Magistrate repeatedly told the minor about five times, ‘sach bolna hai’. What kind of sensibility is this? Is this the role of the court, the police? Nobody is bothered as if it’s a small thing which has happened,” he said.
The senior counsel added: “Ultimately, this court will have to set guidelines. Post trial the law provides, but pre-trial is where the trauma is fresh and then the trauma is increasing because of the insensitivity of everybody.”
The CJI said that “the most shocking detail” was in paragraph 12 of the affidavit. “Your police officer [is] telling her, ‘what do you want?’ Once the matter which requires immediate taking cognizance, even if the parents are not reporting it and the police officer has come to know about it, is it not her duty to register the FIR? Does she understand even the basics of law?” he said.
Story continues below this ad
The counsel appearing for the state submitted there had been no delay in registering the FIR. “It is [only] subsequently [that] they are saying the investigation is not going as per their expectation.”
Rohatgi also informed the Bench that the child’s father had received a call on Monday morning to appear again before the Magistrate for re-identification of the accused along with the child.
The CJI responded: “Do not appear. If he (the father) doesn’t want to, don’t do it.”
Advertisement
Loading Recommendations...
Live Blog