The curse of being an abandoned child in India
It is the Supreme Court which has come to the rescue of brutalised children
The three cases of child abuse and crime against children discussed here underscore why India is not safe for girl children. All of them ended with convictions only because the Supreme Court stepped in. The legislature and the executive were either incapable or collusive. Even the ministry for women and child development ( MWCD) does not appear to have taken its work seriously. In fact, it is high time that the government, or the election commission, if not the MWCD, brings out a list of elected representatives charged with POCSO crimes. These are the worst of all crimes, and people must be made aware of the moral fibre of such elected representatives.
In June 2017, Bihar’s Social Welfare Department asked the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, to prepare a report on the condition of shelters and short-stay homes in the state.
The report, submitted in early 2018, revealed “physical and sexual violations of girls in Child Care Institutions (CCI) in India, many unlicensed, especially at the Muzaffarpur home.” The department then filed an FIR at the women’s police station in Muzaffarpur in May 2018.
At the same time, the government of India too had been working on the state of CCIs across the country. In February 2013, it had been asked by the Supreme Court to do this. The MWCD formed a committee on May 2, 2017. It submitted its report on September 5, 2018. This report finally made its way to the Supreme Court of India.
In the meantime, the Bihar police stated in July 2018 that at least 34 girls were drugged and raped at the Muzaffarpur shelter home.
On August 5, 2018, Governor Satyapal Malik suspended six assistant directors of the state welfare department for negligence in duty.
The Supreme Court steps in
In September 2018, the Supreme Court stepped in. It transferred the case from Bihar to the POCSO court at Delhi’s Saket district court complex. The CBI then revealed lapses on the part of over 70 officials in Bihar, including 25 IAS officers, in managing shelter homes in the state. Whether – and how -- they were penalised is not known.
The government officially informed the Supreme Court that India had 1,575 minors who were victims of sexual abuse, and 189 victims of pornography. They were being ‘sheltered’ in 9,589 CCIs across the country. Almost 50 per cent of the CCIs were without proper government authorisation.
In January 2020, the Delhi court convicted 19 persons, including the main accused, Brajesh Thakur. The judge convicted Thakur for aggravated sexual assault under the POCSO Act and gang rape.
The MWCD report helped. But it recorded that one state, Uttar
Pradesh (UP), had refused to provide information on 34 of its CCIs. So, we asked the MWCD if the data from UP about sexual crimes and its CCIs had finally been compiled? Have irregular CCIs been regularised and suitably monitored? The MWCD did not send a reply.
In March 2021, the Muzaffarpur shelter home case saw a curious development. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) took possession of a Rs 1.45 crore worth Delhi-based property belonging to Asha, the wife of Brajesh Thakur. It also seized a fixed deposit of Rs 2.07 lakh. That was laughable because Thakur and others diverted and siphoned off the funds/grants-in-aid (of about Rs 7.57 crore), said the ED. Are the waters being muddied to spring a release for Thakur? Intriguing.
Kathua, Unnao and fears
The Kathua case relates to the badly brutalised dead body of an eight-year-old child belonging to the nomadic Muslim Bakarwal community. Her body was discovered in Kathua district in January 2018. The biggest frustration came from crowds chanting slogans to challenge law enforcement officers from proceeding against the local priest, who was the prime suspect.
Finally, in May 2018, the Supreme Court stepped in and shifted the case from Kathua to Pathankot in Punjab. The case was fast-tracked and held in-camera, away from media gaze.
In June 2019, Sanji Ram, the caretaker of the temple where the crime took place, Special Police Officer Deepak Khajuria and Parvesh Kumar, a civilian, were convicted under the Ranbir Penal Code sections pertaining to criminal conspiracy, murder, kidnapping, gangrape, destruction of evidence, drugging the victim and common intention.
The Unnao rape case was even more brazen – possibly because the accused was a politician. The principal accused was Kuldeep Singh Sengar -- a BJP lawmaker (now expelled from the party).
He was accused of raping a minor girl in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh in 2017. Even while she was in hospital, Sengar is alleged to have persuaded the police to file a false case against her father, possibly to pressurise her into changing her statement. When the father was out on bail, he was killed – the girl survived. The Supreme Court in August 2019 transferred the case to Delhi.
In March 2020, the courts finally sentenced him for life for raping the child, for culpable homicide and criminal conspiracy in her father’s death. Of the 11 accused, Kuldeep Sengar and six others have been convicted.
The girl has been given accommodation in Delhi and is under CRPF protection.
But the ironic twist in the case took place when it was revealed in April 2021 that Sangeeta, Sengar’s wife, would be fighting the upcoming panchayat elections in UP on a BJP ticket.
This could be a sign of the times to come.