Court penalizes minor’s mother who ‘settled case’ with accused

The Dindoshi Sessions Court, on Thursday, ordered a 14-year-old pregnant minor’s mother, who had filed a kidnapping and rape complaint against a man, to pay Rs 5,000 to the state, as it found that she had ‘misused the state authorities’. The woman had informed the court she did not want to proceed with the case as the matter was “amicably settled” between them.

She had filed an affidavit before the special court, designated under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), that her daughter and she do not wish to proceed with the matter, as the issue is amicably settled between them. She also said that it was a case of a love affair between the man and her daughter. She had been unaware and, hence, had lodged the complaint.

The 27-year-old man, who was arrested last month, had sought bail on the grounds that it was a love affair between the minor and him and that the complainant no longer wanted to proceed with the case.

The Vile Parle police station, where the complaint was lodged, had opposed the bail plea. During the probe, it found that the man was already married to a woman and in a live-in relationship with another. At the same time, he had kept relations with the minor and got her pregnant.

Special judge under the Act HC Shende, said in her order, that very serious facts have come out during the investigation. She added that the informant, after filing such a serious FIR, is now giving no-objection to grant the applicant bail immediately after his arrest. “She literally misused the state authorities. So when the court is deciding to grant bail to the accused, I think it must be granted subject to the cost to be paid by the informant to the state,” the court said.