Man sentenced to 20 years RI for raping 6-year-old girl in Thane
Special court judge DS Deshmukh on Friday found the accused, Anwar Babu Sheikh, guilty of charges under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
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The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
How should sexual abuse survivors be treated?
The story so far: The Delhi High Court recently issued a series of guidelines to streamline procedures in hospitals handling Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) cases involving sexual assault survivors, after finding that miscommunication, and administrative lapses had resulted in the denial of timely medical care to a minor rape survivor. What was the case? Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma issued the guidelines while adjudicating upon the plea of a 17-year-old rape survivor who had been taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, for medical examination and termination of pregnancy. Although accompanied by a police officer following the registration of an FIR, hospital authorities initially refused to conduct an ultrasound, citing the absence of identity documents. The matter was then referred to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), which directed the hospital to proceed with the termination and submit a status report. However, the hospital continued to insist on identity proof and age verification through an ossification test. The ultrasound was eventually carried out after a CWC member personally intervened. By that time, the minor was found to be approximately 25 weeks and 4 days pregnant. The hospital then declined to convene a medical board, contending that a court order was required as the pregnancy appeared to exceed the 24-week statutory limit prescribed under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971. Following the court's intervention, a seven-member medical board was finally constituted at AIIMS to assess the feasibility of terminating the pregnancy. After conducting an ultrasound, the board determined that the gestational age of the foetus was 23 weeks and 4 days, and that the survivor was physically and mentally fit to undergo the procedure. This contradicted the hospital's earlier record, which had put the gestational age at 25 weeks and 4 days. The court noted with anguish that no explanation was provided for this discrepancy. What directions were issued to hospitals? The court observed that when an investigating officer presents a sexual assault survivor for medical examination, along with the official case file and FIR details, separate identity verification may be dispensed with. It further stressed that in cases involving minors, procedural safeguards applicable to routine diagnostic cases should not be applied rigidly or mechanically. Justice Sharma directed that in all cases where a rape or sexual assault survivor is found to be pregnant, a comprehensive medical examination must be conducted without delay. In instances where the gestational age appears to exceed 24 weeks, hospital administrations were instructed to immediately constitute a medical board to conduct the necessary examination and submit a status report to the appropriate authorities without awaiting specific court orders. Hospitals were also directed to ensure that updated Standard Operating Procedures and relevant legal guidelines are readily accessible in both Emergency and Gynaecology Departments, and that duty doctors are regularly briefed and sensitised on their obligations under the MTP Act, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, and other binding directives issued by the Supreme Court and High Courts. The court further mandated that quarterly training programmes be organised for doctors and medical staff in coordination with legal aid bodies such as the Delhi State Legal Services Authority and the Delhi High Court Legal Services Committee (DHCLSC). Each government hospital was also directed to designate a nodal officer to oversee MTP cases and related medico-legal processes, serving as a single point of contact for the CWC, investigating officers, and the courts. Additionally, consent for MTP procedures was to be obtained from the survivor or her guardian, in a language they fully comprehend, such as Hindi or English. What was the Delhi police instructed to do? The court directed the Delhi Police to ensure that investigating officers handling POCSO and sexual assault cases undergo mandatory training every six months, with a focus on MTP procedures, court orders, and coordination with medical and welfare authorities. Certificates of completion are to be duly recorded in the officers' service files. Police officers were also instructed to ensure that sexual assault survivors are presented before the concerned doctor, hospital, or medical board at the earliest opportunity, along with all requisite case files. What were the guidelines issued earlier? On April 17, Justice Sharma issued guidelines for CWCs and the DHCLSC to prevent delays in such cases, while hearing a plea involving a minor sexual assault survivor seeking termination of a pregnancy beyond 27 weeks. She directed that whenever a minor survivor with a gestational age exceeding 24 weeks is referred by the CWC to a hospital for examination or termination, the CWC must immediately notify the DHCLSC. Upon receiving such information, the DHCLSC shall promptly assess the need for legal intervention, including approaching the competent court for permission to terminate the pregnancy, so as to avoid further delay. Earlier, in January 2023, the judge mandated that during the medical examination of a sexual assault survivor, a urine pregnancy test must be conducted. If the survivor is found pregnant and is an adult seeking termination, the investigating officer must ensure that she is presented before the medical board on the same day. State governments were also ordered to ensure that medical boards are constituted in the hospitals.
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Man gets life term for rape, murder of 5-year-old in Ghaziabad
Ghaziabad: A special Pocso court sentenced a man to life imprisonment for the rape and murder of a five-year-old in Jan. The court deemed it a heinous crime against humanity and sentenced the convict under three different sections, along with imposing a Rs 1.7 lakh fine. The court pronounced him guilty on Thursday and sentenced him on Friday. Additional sessions court, Ghaziabad and special Pocso judge Neeraj Gautam said that as the case does not qualify under the 'rarest of the rare' category, the court is unable to award capital punishment to the convict. "However, in light of the fact that the perpetrator resorted to aggressive penetrative sexual assault on a five-year-old to satisfy his lust, killed her, and tried to conceal evidence, this court is awarding him the maximum possible punishment under the law," he noted in the judgment. The incident came to light after the minor's grandmother filed a missing report at Link Road police station on Jan 16, 2025. Appearing as one of the witnesses in the court, she said that her granddaughter went missing on Jan 15, around 10:30pm, while she was playing outside the house. "When she did not return, we tried approaching the neighbours and searched for her everywhere and finally registered a missing report the next day," she informed the court. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Giao dịch vàng CFDs với sàn môi giới tin cậy IC Markets Tìm hiểu thêm Undo Police searched for CCTV footage, and, after an investigation, they found that the accused had taken the minor with him. Cops nabbed the accused from the Kaushambi bus station. After the interrogation, the accused revealed that after raping the girl, he killed her and packed the body in a polythene bag and threw it into a drain near gate number 12. Special public prosecutor, Pocso Act, Utkash Vats, said that they could present a case before the court to ensure that justice was done to the minor. "We produced a video clip from the CCTV camera of a neighbour to establish that the victim was last seen with the accused, and we also produced an eyewitness who had seen him disposing of something in the drain from where the body was finally recovered," he said. The prosecution presented a postmortem report that proved anti-natal injuries and death due to asphyxiation, besides confirming aggravated penetrative sexual assault through a forensic lab report. Taking into account the prosecution's establishment of facts, the court declared the 24-year-old guilty of murder under section 103(1). It also sentenced him to prison for the remaining part of his life under section 65(2) of BNS, dealing with raping a girl under the age of 12, and section 6 of the Pocso Act, dealing with aggravated penetrative sexual assault. In addition, he has also been sentenced to five years each under sections 137(2) and 238 of BNS, with a total fine of Rs 1.7 lakh. The court directed that Rs 1 lakh from the fine deposited would be paid to the aggrieved parents of the minor, besides directing the district legal services authority to extend further monetary help under provisions of BNSS 396 and 33 (8) of the Pocso Act. Follow more information on Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad here . Get real-time live updates on rescue operations and check full list of passengers onboard AI 171 .
Time of India
4 hours ago
- Time of India
Debate Over 498A Misuse Grows Louder
New Delhi: In four years since 2021, there was a very low conviction rate of 0.2% in criminal cases related to cruelty to a woman by her husband or his relatives under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code. Data obtained from the city's district courts through Right to Information applications, reveals that 4,655, or nearly 47%, of the cases were quashed by Delhi High Court while 736 resulted in acquittals, an indication perhaps of how the law is being used as a weapon against men. Advocate Manisha Bhandari, who practices in trial courts, high courts and the Supreme Court, said, "Only credible evidence can lead to conviction. It's time 498A was made a compoundable offence. There are enough indications that most of the cases are filed to exact revenge or due to resentment against the husband or in-laws. There often is no cruelty, but possibly love lost. The low conviction rate exposes the authenticity of the complaints. " Data related to 2021-24 Delhi from five of the seven district courts in Delhi — Patiala House, Saket, Tis Hazari, Rohini, and Karkardooma (the other two are the Rouse Avenue and Dwarka courts) — shows that of 9,950 cases tried, 23 ended in conviction. These seven district courts comprise the capital's 11 judicial districts of Central, East, New Delhi, North, North East, North West, Shahdara, South, South East, South West and West. RTI data was provided by Karkardooma from East, Rohini from North, Saket from South, Karkardooma from Shahdara, Tis Hazari from West, Saket from South East, Patiala House from New Delhi and Rohini from North West. In every judicial district, there are two judges in the 'mahila courts' designated to hear Section 498A cases. Altogether, 22 judges convicted the accused in 23 cases though in most, even relatives of the husband, including individuals with no direct involvement in the matrimonial relationship of the husband and wife, had been implicated. Shonee Kapoor, a lawyer and RTI activist who filed the application for information from the Delhi district courts, told TOI that Section 498A, originally intended to safeguard women from cruelty in matrimonial, has increasingly become a tool for coercion and negotiation rather than justice. It is invoked not for genuine redressal but to pressure the husband and his family into financial or personal settlements. "The judiciary, while aware of these patterns, often resorts to an endless cycle of adjournments. Instead of ensuring swift justice or decisive action—either to punish the guilty or to discharge the innocent—cases are prolonged unnecessarily," said Kapoor. "This systemic delay appears to function as an unofficial mechanism to push parties towards a compromise, irrespective of merit. The courtroom, in such cases, becomes less a forum for justice and more a theatre of attrition, where time is weaponised against the accused." Kapoor, who has made a representation for virtual investigation and trial of matrimonial offences, said, "Courts have time and again said that technology should be a means of ensuring justice to everyone. The time has come for all investigation and trial of matrimonial offences to be mandatorily made virtual. Virtual conferences, since Covid times, have become an effective way of dealing and delivering justice across the country. Expressing his concern that many of these cases which reached a conclusion in the last four years actually began 7-12 years ago, Kapoor said the defendants, among them senior citizens and women in the husband's families, faced trauma over a lengthy period. "If justice delayed is justice denied, then the routine delays in Section 498A cases amount to a denial of justice to the falsely accused men as well as to genuine victims," he said. Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj, a men's rights activist, pointed out to TOI, "In the last two years, 10 Supreme Court judgements expressed concern at the misuse of 498A. "What's the point of expressing concern when the court can't bring relief to people who are being harassed? Not a single woman has been punished for filing false 498A cases in the last 40 years. Is this equality? Men are dying by suicide after being falsely implicated, but our lawmakers are oblivious to the pain of such men and their families," said Bhardwaj. In Dec 2024, the Supreme Court accepted that the law was increasingly being exploited to settle "personal vendettas" or exert undue pressure on husbands and their families. In Jan this year, the Supreme Court said, "For bringing a case under Section 498A, the material placed on record should show that the ill-treatment was meted out by the husband or a relative, which is connected with non-fulfilment of demand of dowry. Taking the allegations at their face value in the FIR or even in the entire material placed in the charge-sheet, it will show that there is no averment or material to show that the appellant (husband) was in any way concerned with causing harassment on account of non-fulfilment of demand of dowry." In May 2024, the apex court ruled that married women couldn't use police machinery to hold the husband to ransom and expressed concern at IPC's Section 498A being replicated in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita without offering protection to the husband and his relatives against frivolous complaints. Quashing a 498A case filed by a woman against her husband, his parents, brother, and sister, Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said, "Police machinery should be resorted to as a measure of last resort and that too in a genuine case of cruelty and harassment. " The bench referred to the 2010 judgment highlighting the abuse of Section 498A by married women in matrimonial disputes and the court's request to the law commission and law ministry to revisit the provision. In Feb, Delhi High Court too expressed concern about women harassing their husbands and in-laws by misusing the anti-dowry law. Justice Amit Mahajan made the remarks while quashing a case registered by a wife against her husband in 2017 alleging he had made dowry demand and failed to return her stri dhan. As the bench noted, "Courts have taken note of the increasing tendency of implicating the husband and his family in matrimonial litigation in a number of cases. While the provision of Section 498A of IPC was introduced to combat harassment meted out to married women, it is abysmal to note that the same is now also being misused as a tool to harass the husband and his family members and gain leverage." Justice Mahajan also condemned the filing of such cases "by exaggerating and misconstructing actual events". Follow more information on Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad here . Get real-time live updates on rescue operations and check full list of passengers onboard AI 171 .
