M.K.ABOOBACKER Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner herein has been arrayed as the sole accused in the instant Crime No.527/2019 of Mathilakam Police Station, Thrissur, registered for offences punishable under Secs.377 & 506(i) of the Indian Penal Code and Secs.3, 4, 7 and 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (POCSO) Act, 2012. The abovesaid crime has been registered on the basis of the First Information Statement given by the minor victim boy on 05.09.2019 at about 7.40 p.m., in respect of the alleged incidents which happened on 31.05.2019 at about 10 p.m.

(2.) The prosecution case in short is that the petitioner/accused aged 60 years is living in the immediate neighbourhood of the minor victim boy aged 14 years and that on 31.05.2019 at about 10 p.m., when both of them were returning back after the night prayers in the nearby Mosque, the boy had given a lift in his bicycle to the petitioner and the when they reached near the mobile shop, the petitioner had dragged the boy to a toilet near the shop and there he had pressed on the boy's chest and grabbed his genital and the petitioner has pressed his genital organ into the mouth of the boy and threaten to do away with him, if he disclosed the same and thereby he has committed the abovesaid offences.

(3.) The learned counsel for the petitioner would point out that the abovesaid allegations are false and fabricated and that the petitioner is innocent and further that the incident is said to have happened on 31.05.2019 at about 10 p.m., whereas the case has been lodged only as late as on 05.09.2019 at about 7.40 p.m. and there is no reasonable explanation about the long delay and the long and unexplained delay in the lodging of the case will vitiate the entire criminal proceedings, as it affects the very believability and credibility of the prosecution case. Further that, the petitioner is a senior citizen aged 60 years and that his wife is a cancer patient and that this Court may order to grant him anticipatory bail. Further it is pointed out by the learned counsel for the petitioner that the abovesaid allegations have been made by the minor victim boy out of misunderstandings and even his family members are not convinced for the same and the mother of the minor victim boy has sworn to Annexure-A2 affidavit dated 14.10.2019, wherein she has stated that the abovesaid allegations are made out of misunderstandings and that the victim and his parents do not wish to prosecute the matter any further and that they do not have any objection in the grant of bail to the petitioner, etc.