Team Herald
PANJIM: A fast-track POCSO court came down heavily on the Colva Police and prosecution for “miserably” failing to establish the guilt of an accused in a 2013 rape case, leading to his acquittal.
The case goes back eight years, when the family of the 16-year-old survivor lodged a complaint with the Colva Police alleging that their daughter had been raped and was five months pregnant. The police had subsequently chargesheeted Anil Pednekar, the accused, under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.
At trial, the prosecution had submitted that somewhere during January and February 2013, Pednekar, a carpenter by profession, had sexually assaulted the teen at Canaguinim Beach, causing her to fall pregnant.
The girl was later admitted to a protective home.
However, the court’s presiding officer Durga Madkaikar observed that there was no medical evidence on record tying the accused to the offence. She further observed that no DNA test report had been produced on record as the application filed by the investigating officer for conducting such a test had been rejected by the Children’s Court.
“The record shows that the entire investigation was carried out by male officers without taking the assistance of any lady officers. This has been admitted by the investigating officer during his cross-examination,” the court observed.
That the survivor turned hostile during the trial only added to the woes of the prosecution. Madkaikar noted that the survivor did not say anything about the accused having raped her. “In her cross-examination, the victim did not state anything incriminating against the accused,” she said. “To sum it up, the prosecution has miserably failed to establish the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt.”
Acquitting the accused of serious offences by giving him the benefit of doubt, the court directed the authorities to release his belongings seized during the investigation and trial.
