Madras High Court quashes POCSO case against a mother lodged by her minor son

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court quashed a POCSO case filed against a woman, as it was a foisted complaint given by her minor son under the influence of his father arising out of a matrimonial dispute.

The final report of the investigation in the POCSO complaint is based on the opinion of a Child Welfare Committee (CWO) member, who received money from the father of the boy to file the foisted complaint in order to get custody of the boy, wrote Justice G Jayachandran while disposing of the petition.

The judge also wrote that the final report filed is defective in the sense of not investigating the matter holistically as the Kancheepuram Collector's report regarding the tainted CWC member who had influenced the registration of the complaint and misled the investigation, was properly taken note of by the Investigating Officer (IO) while filing the final report.

The court also directed the Tambaram Commissioner of Police to appoint a competent officer to conduct further investigation and file a final report within four months.

The unofficially separated couple Ramkumar and Roja moved two different petitions in the High Court. The husband had sought to expedite the trial of the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) case which is pending before the Chengalpattu POCSO court, whereas the wife sought to quash the pending trial as it is a motivated case.

Senior advocate RC Paul Kanagaraj, representing the petitioner Roja, submitted that the father of the boy tutored him against his mother to lodge the motivated false complaint to hold the custody of the boy since the couple was living separately due to their matrimonial dispute.

Hence, the husband bribed the CWC member, to influence the Investigating Officer to proceed with the fabricated complaint, submitted the advocate.

It was also submitted that the report of the Kancheepuram Collector regarding the inquiry conducted by them about the misconduct of Selvi Baskar, the tainted CWC member, had found that money was transferred to the account of the CWC member from the account of Ramkumar, the father of the minor boy, two days prior to the case registration, said the advocate.

The advocate submitted that the opinion of the tainted CWC member had grossly influenced the investigation and sought to quash the pending POCSO case against his client.

On the other hand, the counsel for Ramkumar submitted that in the complaint of sexual harassment of the victim child by the mother and her paramour, alleged by the victim child himself, the role of the CWC member has no bearing in the investigation, and objected to quash the pending case.