MUMBAI: An “unnatural” year-and-a-half delay in lodging an FIR has led to the acquittal of a 42-year-old deputy income-tax commissioner accused of sexually assaulting his 13-year-old domestic help in 2017. The special POCSO Act court questioned why the child’s family, a member of which was employed in the maternal house of the estranged wife of the accused for decades, did not lodge an FIR immediately after the incident.
The accused and his wife are in the midst of divorce proceedings and the woman had lodged a domestic violence complaint against him. The accused had alleged that he was falsely implicated by the wife and her politically-connected family.
The court observed that while it was probable the minor’s character would not have been put at stake merely because of a dispute between the accused and his wife, the conduct of the prosecution witnesses and inordinate delay in lodging the FIR created sufficient doubt in the prosecution’s case.
The child, her sister and mother had alleged that they were threatened in their village after the incident.
The accused was arrested in 2018 but granted bail. In 2016, the minor and her sister had come to the city to live with the accused and his wife so that they could help take care of their daughter. They were to join a school in the city and pursue studies. They went back to their village in 2017.
The minor deposed that the accused threatened to release her nude pictures if she complained to anybody. The court pointed out that the minor had admitted that she would always latch the bathroom door before bathing. “So, it is unbelievable that accused had snapped nude photographs of the minor with his mobile phone. Even, if it is considered that the accused only threatened to make viral her nude photographs for molesting her, the question remains as to why the investigating officer had not made any inquiry or seized the phone of accused to verify if he has nude photographs of the minor,” the court said.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)