ABOOBACKER Vs. STATION HOUSE OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is the sole accused in Crime No.724/2018 of Kunnamangalam Police Station, Kozhikode, which has been registered for offences punishable under Section 377 of IPC and Sections 3(c) r/w.4 and 5 (m) r/w.6 of POCSO Act, 2012.

(2.) The brief of the prosecution case is that on a day in the month of September, 2018, the petitioner/accused aged 54 years had committed carnal intercourse against the order of nature on a minor victim boy aged 13 years, by putting his genital organ in between the legs/thighs of the minor boy after making him to lie down on the bed at the house of the petitioner, when the boy reached there to help the petitioner for bringing some goods etc. Further that the petitioner had threatened the boy to death if he would disclose the incident to anybody and that the petitioner had also repeated the same act on three or four occasions. The petitioner has been arrested on 25.2.2019 and has been under judicial custody since then.

(3.) The learned counsel for the petitioner would point out that even if it is taken that the entirety of the allegations raised by the minor victim boy in the First Information Statement is admittedly true, still the offences under Section 377 of IPC and Sections 3, 4, 5 and 7 of the POCSO Act will not lie and therefore, punishable Sections for those offences as per Section 4 and 6 of POCSO Act will not lie in this case and consequently at best only the substantive offence for Section 7 (sexual assault) and the consequential Section 8 could be made out in the facts of this case. It is also urged by the learned counsel for the petitioner that as the petitioner has already been under judicial custody for more than 40 days, the continued detention of the petitioner is no longer necessary, more particularly, as the investigation has almost been completed. Sri. Sunny Mathew, the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner would also state that the allegations have been falsely foisted against the petitioner as the uncle of the minor victim boy is a drugs peddler and the petitioner being the headmaster of the local aided school and the President of the Mahal Committee had repeatedly prevented the said person not to sell the drugs to the children and the other people of the locality and the said person, who in turn has foisted the false charges through the minor victim boy etc.