Not a single First Information Report (FIR) has been registered by the State government on the 113 instances of child pornography though 113 victims are housed in child-care institutions in Karnataka, claimed NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) before the High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday.
A submission was made before a Division Bench comprising Chief Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Pradeep Singh Yerur during the hearing of a PIL petition filed by BBA, and another PIL petition initiated suo motu by the high court based on a direction of the apex court for monitoring implementation of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
During earlier hearing, the Bench had directed the government to submit status report on the investigation conducted in connection with cases related to child pornography. The Bench had issued the directions after BBA submitted a report of the Ministry of Woman and Child Development-2018 on analysis of date of mapping and review exercise of child care institutions under the JJ Act, 2015, in which it was stated that 113 child victims (87 boys and 26 girls) were kept in child-care institutions.
However, as the government counsel on Tuesday told the court that he had not received instructions from the officials on the status of investigations, the Bench directed him to secure instruction on whether FIRs were registered or nor as counsel for BBA claimed that not a single FIR was registered in connection with the instances of child pornography.
The counsel for BBA also pointed out to the court that a special investigation team comprising experts from cyber police needs to be constituted to probe cases related to the 113 victims. Further hearing has been adjourned till November 28.
