The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has directed the Deputy Superintendent of Police, CB-CID, Tenkasi, to conduct an investigation into a case registered under the POCSO Act.
The court was hearing petitions filed by Neelakandan of Tenkasi district. The petitioner is facing two criminal cases, including one registered for offences under the POCSO Act. He said the cases were foisted against him pursuant to a civil suit filed by him. The petitioner sought the quashing of the FIRs registered against him. The main contention of the petitioner was that the case was registered against him when the defacto complainant was aged about 19 years, two years after the alleged occurrence.
Justice B. Pugalendhi observed that it is pertinent to note that Section 19 of the POCSO Act does not prescribe a limitation period for lodging a complaint under the Act.
The court observed that very often children are unable to report such crimes as the perpetrator in most cases was either a family member, a relative or a known person. The victim continues to carry the trauma of sexual abuse till very late in life and in order to overcome this trauma, many adults report the abuse faced by them when they were children.
