To call an aggravated penetrative sexual assault on an eight-year-old girl as ‘animalistic’ will be an injustice to animals because even they do not sexually assault young/baby animals, the Madras High Court has said.
Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy made the observation while reversing the order of acquittal, passed by a Sessions Court in Tiruppur in 2014, from charges under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act of 2012.
Allowing a State appeal pending since 2016, the judge convicted P. Murugan (name changed in the interest of his three girl children) and sentenced him to rigorous imprisonment of 10 years. He ordered compensation of ₹10.5 lakh for the survivor.
The State government was directed to pay the compensation to her since the girl had undergone untold misery, physically and psychologically, due to the sexual assault perpetrated by the convict, who was her neighbour, in 2013.
Taking note that the girl was now in Class XII, the judge directed the government to deposit the compensation in the bank account of her mother, with a rider that the money should be used only for the girl’s education, rehabilitation and well-being.
‘Orphans of justice’
Since the convict had to go to jail after nine years of the crime, leaving behind his 32-year-old wife and three girl children aged 14, 13 and 7, the judge said these children were generally termed “orphans of justice or invisible victims or hidden victims”. “They are put to untold misery and deprivation without any fault on their part,” he said, and directed the Director of Social Defence to ensure the livelihood of the convict’s wife and the educational and nutritional needs of the three children.
He pointed out that the UN had come up with draft guidelines for providing alternative care to such children. The West Bengal prison directorate, in partnership with the National Legal Services Authority, was providing support to families and children of prisoners. “They have been providing educational support and social security. The children are trained, according to their talent and inclinations, into profession of their choice. It is represented that West Bengal has even made rules ensuring education of children of prisoners studying in schools or colleges.”
The judge recorded his appreciation for the doctors in hospitals, where the victim in the present case was treated, for providing her with the best care and furnishing credible medical evidence in support of prosecution. He pointed out that a psychiatrist had treated the girl for acute stress reaction, and other doctors had treated her for hypoxic encephalopathy because the convict also attempted to smother her with a pillow but left her alive after she fainted.
