The Madras High Court has granted bail to a 22-year-old youth arrested for offences under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, since the minor girl who eloped with him confessed that it was only on her compulsion that they ran away with the intention of getting married.
Granting conditional relief to the youth, Justice S. Vaidyanathan placed the burden of such offences on parents of young children. “Parents should spend more time with their children, as spending time with the children is more important than spending money on children,” he said.
Looking at a social perspective, the court is of the view that the role of parents is very important in cultivating good thoughts among children from the beginning. In many families, children are not able to share their thoughts and aspirations with their parents mainly due to fear.
Only when parents develop a friendly atmosphere with their children will they be able to share everything with their parents; by the way, they will develop a strong feeling not to conceal any information from their parents, the judge added.
‘Bad influence of films’
Blaming films equally, Justice Vaidyanathan said, “Movies teach both good and bad. In movies, a teenage boy runs behind a teenage schoolgoing girl with an intention to propose love to her, and children, by all means try to imitate the same in reality.
“Since children were not able to distinguish between good and bad, and bad things easily induce them, they fall prey to it.”
The case of the prosecution is that the youth kidnapped the girl in the pretext of marrying her and had physical relationship with her. He was arrested and remanded to judicial custody on July 9 for offences under section 366(A) (Procuration of minor girl) of IPC, read with sections 3 and 4 of POCSO Act.
When the bail application came up for hearing, the girl gave a statement saying that she voluntarily eloped with him and that she would consume poison if he did not take her with him, as her parents were vigorously searching an alliance for her.
Minor girl confesses that it was only on her compulsion
they ran away
to get married
