'Rising trend of sexual exploitation of children; social movement against it needed': Madras High Court

The Madras High Court, while dealing with a criminal appeal filed by a man who had been convicted for sexually abusing five children, observed that the sexual abuse of children has become more prevalent and there should be a social movement against it.

The division bench of Justice PN Prakash and Justice Hemalatha further opined that with the rising trend of sexual exploitation of children, the recalcitrant attitude of the public that it is not their problem is purely due to the lack of empathy.

The bench, therefore, suggested that moral education should focus on the importance of children and treating them with due care. "Today's children are tomorrow's leaders and unless we protect them, this society will face huge crisis in future. It is our duty to make a society which is safe for children," stated the court.

Observing thus, Court dismissed the present appeal and confirmed the conviction and sentence passed by Sessions Court against the appellant.

The Sessions Court had held the man guilty of committing penetrative sexual assault on three girl children (one of whom was a three-year-old baby girl) and sexually assaulting two boy children and had convicted him for the offence punishable under Section 3 (a) read with 5(m) read with 6 (5 counts) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.

The man challenged the order of the Sessions Court before the High Court contending that the parents of the children had falsely implicated him in the concerned cases due to personal grudges against him and the children were tutored by them to give their statements against him.

The counsel for the man also argued that there was undue delay in lodging the police complaint and the doctor who examined the children were unanimous in their conclusion that there was no sign of any sexual assault on the victim children.

However, Court refused to agree with the contention raised and said that no parent would like their children to suffer even if it was to settle a personal score. Court pointed out that all the children had withstood the testimony of cross-examination and held that such spontaneous replies could not have come out of them if there was tutoring.

On the issue of delay in the lodging of the complaints, Court opined that delay in giving police complaints in such cases is very natural due to limited knowledge of the POCSO Act and people's traditional beliefs and inhibitions.

Court noted that in the present case, initially the elder of the village, to which the man and victims belonged, were informed about the incidents, however, they dismissed the issue stating that they could not enquire the accused over such "delicate things".

Further, regarding doctor's finding that there was no sign of sexual assault on children, Court opined that "mere absence of physical injury did not rule out the sexual acts of the appellant as the other effects could not be assessed by physical examination".

Stating that the indifference of the villagers in this particular case was appalling, Court stressed that the victim children and prosecution witnesses had categorically stated how they were subjected to sexual assault by the man.

Therefore, coming to the conclusion that the man was a pedophile, court dismissed the appeal and confirmed the life imprisonment awarded to him.

Case Title: Narayanan v. State of Tamil Nadu