After being repeatedly raped under the guise of marriage, a juvenile sought assistance from a police officer, who was arrested for the rape.
The girl and her mother went to the Bommanahalli Police in December of last year, claiming that their neighbor had been pressing the adolescent into marriage, according to the Times of India, which quoted the investigating officer. However, she made no mention of the neighbor raping her, and her mother acknowledged that she was likewise ignorant of the incident.
“The constable, who discovered that the neighbor had established physical relations with the girl, befriended her and took her to a hotel room. There, he gave her beer laced with sleeping pills and raped her. He threatened her, saying he had recorded the act on his cell phone and would upload it on social media if she dared to file a police complaint against him.”
A lawsuit was filed on February 13 after the girl later told her mother about the act. As a result, a POCSO Act FIR was submitted.
Because it was a case of teenage love and their physical contact was consensual, the Delhi High Court cleared a man of raping a young girl.
As a result, Justice Jasmeet Singh overturned the man’s 2014 conviction for raping a 17-year-old girl. The man was 19 at the time of the crime.
The high court stated punishing him was a “perversity of justice”.
The court held on February 20 and stated
“… what cannot be lost sight of is that, at the time of the incident, the appellant (man) was 19 years of age and the prosecutrix (girl) was about 17 years of age. Thus, it was a case of adolescent love and the physical relations were established consensually. Therefore, to convict the appellant under the POCSO Act would be a perversity of justice,”.
According to the court, the prescribed age of majority must be read and interpreted within the framework of the legislation under consideration.
