Child abuse case sent back to trial court

A division bench comprising Justice S Vimala and S Ramathilagam on setting aside the conviction of the accused (Iyappan) by the trial court said, “So far as recovery and DNA profiling is concerned, the recovery itself is falsified by the evidence of prosecution witness themselves, while Kattu Raju would say that the accused was arrested on February 07, 2008, the recovery witness would state that the accused was arrested on February 08, 2008. Therefore, the arrest, confession and consequent recovery are all proved to be false and it cannot be relied upon.”

As per the prosecution, on February 06, 2008, the victim child was sleeping along with her parents when some unknown persons kidnapped the child, sexually abused her and left her in a bleeding condition. The child was found in the construction site of Kattu Raja with lose of consiousness. The parents were the tenant in one of the portions under Kattu Raja. The accused was also residing in the same premises. 

Even though the complaint did not mention any named accused, the prosecution chose to fix a coolie worker under Kaatu Raja as an accused. After few months, the victim child recovered consciousness and after being certified to depose, those unknown persons according to the victim girl included Kaatu Raja. 

However, Kattu Raja’s daughter had testified that the accused (Iyappan) is a man of perversion and narrated a series of incidents implicating the accused in the mould of sexual addict citing some of the incidents, in which sexual favours were demanded from her. But based on the victim’s child submission the Mahila court had ordered further investigation in 2016. But the result remained the same with Iyappan remaining the accused.

However, the bench held “We are at a loss to understand how this finding that the evidence of the victim-child, her parents and Kattu Raja’s daughter coupled with the accused has the linking between the victim-child and the accused. May be that in the evidence of Kattu Raja’s daughter it is stated that the accused had a perverted mind and his behavior with her was sexually coloured. But nowhere there is a link between the victim child and the involvement of the accused.”

“It seems that Kattu Raja with an elan and ease of good script writer had developed the entire prosecution story from a one liner, which spin around his side-kick Iyappan. The climax sent the innocent behind bars, while the manipulator when whistling scot free,” the bench added and directed the trial court to complete the trial within three months.