HC quashes POCSO case against youth

The Kerala High Court has quashed a case that was registered against an 18-year-old youth under the POCSO Act, since the ‘victim’ who was his lover and school mate, intended to continue a romantic relationship with him.

The youth had been charged under the Act and was arrayed as an accused in a case that was pending before the Additional Sessions Court, Thiruvananthapuram. The prosecution had charged him with ‘kidnapping’ her from the guardianship of her parents and sexually assaulting her when she was seventeen-and-a-half years old, on the ‘false promise’ of marriage.

The youth contended that he was innocent and that he was falsely implicated in the case. Further, the matter was ‘amicably settled’ between the parties, with neither the ‘victim’ nor her parents interested in prosecuting him.

A Bench of Justice G. Girish said that the youth would not have been charged with any of the offences, had the incidents happened six months later, since the entire acts took place with the full consent and active participation of the victim girl.

The vagaries of adolescence have taken the form of a criminal offence in this case. Moreover, the victim wants to continue her romantic relationship with the youth. It would thus be too harsh and improper to compel the youth to face trial in the case, it noted and quashed the proceedings against the petitioner youth.