How to prove false allegations under POCSO ACT?

Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act [POCSO]

The Act seeks to protect children from offenses such as sexual assault, sexual harassment, and pornography. This Act was amended recently in 2019 where the death penalty was introduced for aggravated penetrative sexual assault in Section 6 of the Principal Act and the minimum punishment was modified to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment.

Bail under POCSO Act

Getting a bail under the POCSO Act is indeed difficult, however, if one could prove that he is being falsely charged for the offence and can provide evidence in support then the accused can be acquitted.

There have been many instances such as: A court in Delhi acquitted an accused man for sexually assaulting minors, and the Court also noted that children were heavily tutored by their parents and that there is ample evidence to show that he was falsely framed due to “caste hatred”.

The court after going through the material on record stated that there is an ample evidence to prove that the accused person was falsely framed due to the prejudicial disposition of the parents regarding the accused person, who belongs to the Dalit community.

“It is our experience in manning criminal justice delivery system that people level false accusations for myriad reasons, one of which is caste hatred as exemplified in appreciation of evidence in this case” stated by the Court.

False Complaint under POCSO

In 2016, a complaint was filed that has turned out to be false and the victim contended that she did not know the accused and no such incident had taken place. She filed a complaint against two men stating an allegation that the minor had been kidnapped by the duo, made to consume alcohol and raped by them.

Are men being targeted?

Even a cursory reading of the new law on rape brings to light the exceptionally inclusive approach to provide justice in rape cases. However, it also raises the question that if such a law, that imposes the aforesaid heavy punishment, is misused then what are going to be the consequences for the falsely accused person.

Case Study 1

Recently, the High Court in Gujarat in the case of State of Gujarat v. Hasmukhbhai @ Harshadbhai Dahyabhai Makwana, Case No.: R/CR.MA/9857/2022, Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Guj) 266, has dismissed the appeal of the State wherein it challenged the acquittal of a person accused under the POCSO Act, citing lack of evidence.

The Court in this case observed that “It is to be noted that on one side the complainant has alleged against the respondent accused regarding sexual assault upon her victim daughter and merely after a span of 3 to 4 days she has alleged against her own husband regarding sexual assault upon her victim daughter. As such, two contradictory versions have been stated by the complainant within a span of 4 days against two persons and both the allegations are based on suspicion and doubt, one against the present respondent accused and another against her husband. As such, mere suspicion and doubt cannot be considered to be cogent and convincing proof to prove the allegations.”

It was stated by the court that even if the offence is grave and the suspicion may be strong, it cannot take the place of proof. It further clarified that there is always a duty upon the Courts to ensure that suspicion can never take away the legal proof. It is always that evidence and legal proof will have more weightage over suspicion and court cannot work on suspicions, it needs proof.

The court concluded that “No doubt the alleged offence is a shocking one but the gravity of the offence cannot by itself overweigh as far as legal proof is concerned”.

Case study 2

A Fast Track Special Court, Judge has acquitted an accused who got arrested in a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) case. The accused was acquitted as the complainant and the prosecutrix later turned hostile during the course of the hearings.

The Judge clarified that “To prove the guilt of the accused, it was obligatory on part of the prosecution to prove the charges against the accused. The prosecutrix was the best person to prove the same by deposing in the court, but she has categorically denied the involvement of the accused in the commission of the offence. Apart from the testimony of the complainant and the prosecutrix, who have not supported the prosecution case, no other direct or substantial evidence is available on record to prove the accusation against the accused.”

It was further stated by the Judge that the observations, discussion and necessary corollary to the findings on the points for determination in the instant case, it is clear that the prosecution side has failed to discharge the burden of proof. Hence, the court has acquitted the accused of the offence punishable u/s 376 (3) of the IPC and Section 4 of the POCSO Act.

Case study 3

A Special Court under the POCSO Act has acquitted a man who was an accused of raping a girl and later she stated that she did not wish to proceed against the accused (State of Maharashtra v. Jacob Muthuswami Naidu).

 

Conclusion

Without trivialising the issue of rape and the fact that it is rampant and a whole lot of cases do not even get registered with the police, one cannot ignore the fact that if a woman falsely accuses a man, the victimization of that particular person is going to humungous. The importance and gravity that will be attributed to the statement of the accused is going to be dramatically lesser than the importance and truth value that will be attributed to the supposed “victim”.

Evidence and conduct does help to an extent, but what will a person do when the sexual act was done with consent and then later on the presentation of that fact is distorted and presented as a non-consensual act. Hence, each case must be dealt with its own angle and not set formula/ rule can be applied to all the cases.

 

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