Denied interim bail
A special court has last Wednesday denied temporary bail to a 22-year-old labourer who is in custody for sexually assaulting a two-and-a-half year old toddler in his neighbourhood.
Special judge under the Protection of Children from Sexual offences (POCSO) Act Rekha Pandhare, while rejecting his plea for temporary bail said that he is charged with serious offences under the POCSO Act and that the directions of the apex court to decongest prisons cannot be applied to the case as offences under the POCSO Act are excluded for consideration for temporary bail. The court also noted that the case pertains to sexual assault of a two-anda-half year old girl.
The youth, who is lodged in the Mumbai Central prison had sought interim bail citing the directions of the
High Power Committee constituted for decongestion of prisons in the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic.
As per the police complaint lodged at Ghatkopar police station in 2018, the youth who hails from Uttar Pradesh and worked as a carpenter had offered a chocolate to the child and taken her to his room upstairs. The child’s mother has told him not to take her, but he insisted that he would get her back after she had eaten the chocolate. After some time, he brought the child back to her home. When her mother tried to make her sleep, the child would not sleep and pointing at her private part, complained of uneasiness. The mother got suspicious on examining the area and questioned the youth. He said that he had just touched her in the area and done nothing more. Thereafter, a police complaint was lodged.
While the authorities are tirelessly working to bring down the rising number of Covid-19 positive cases, it seems the authorities could not contain the contagious "corruption'" from the system.
While the citizens are continuing to reel under the outbreak of the pandemic, there has been no lockdown for corrupt public servants as the cases of corruption continued to scale up.
According to the data put up on the official website of Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), Maharashtra, over 200 cases of corruption have been lodged from March till date. The numbers, though slightly lower than 342 cases of last year (March till July), are still alarming and indicates that corruption cannot be easily contained.
As usual, the state police force continued to top the list, even during the lockdown with 81cases lodged against them. The cops were followed by the revenue department with 80 cases.
Around 117 cops across the state have been booked for corruption and malpractices while 111 officials from the revenue department were also named in the corruption cases.
The data further reveals that Pune topped the list of corrupt officials with nearly 86 cases lodged from January, followed by Nagpur that has recorded 50 cases. Mumbai has around 10 cases.
Commenting on the numbers, RTI activist Kamlakar Shenoy pointed out that there can be no deterrent for corruption especially because of the modifications made in various statutes by the Union government of the day. "The Union government has amended the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, which deals with the corruption cases against public servants. The fresh modifications have only damaged and destroyed the basic foundations and objectives of the law," he said.
When contacted, a senior officer from ACB Maharashtra, told Free Press Journal that the force is doing an excellent job.
"We have taken all possible efforts to create awareness about the PC Act and also the provisions of ACB. The citizenry is always encouraged to come forward and lodge complaints regarding any unlawful gratification sought by public servants to do their very own job," the officer said on condition of anonymity.
Police personnel emerge as most corrupt