HC grants bail to man accused of flashing, directs counselling for minor victim
New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi High Court has granted bail to a 63-year-old man accused of flashing at a minor girl and directed that the 10-year-old alleged victim be counselled as such incidents leave a "deep trauma".
Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma said the accused was an old man and was stated to be mentally unstable.
The judge also noted the man had not touched the girl nor verbally abused her.
"There is no doubt that such incidents leave a deep trauma on the victim but at the same time, the Court has to strive to maintain a balance...Without going into merits of the case and taking into account the age of the accused and that he has no past criminal antecedents, the accused is admitted to Court bail on furnishing a personal bond of Rs. 20,000/- with one surety of the like amount to the satisfaction of the trial court," the court said in a recent order.
"The IO (investigating officer) is directed to get the counselling session organized for the victim," the court said, adding an NGO may be involved in counselling.
In the present case, an FIR was registered under section 509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of IPC and section 12 (Punishment for sexual harassment) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act against the petitioner accused who was arrested on June 24, 2023 and was in judicial custody ever since.
The victim alleged that on the morning on June 23, she was sitting near the staircase of her house when the petitioner, who lives in the same neighborhood, showed his private parts to her and uttered something.
As per the school record, the victim was born in June 2013, noted the court.
In the order, the court also directed the petitioner to not directly or indirectly make any threat etc to any person acquainted with the case and, in case any complaint is received by the police, he shall shift his residence beyond 5 km radius of the house occupied by the victim's family.
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Two arrested in K'taka for assaulting minors, uploading CSAM content
Bengaluru (PTI): Two men were arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two minor girls, recording the acts on mobile phones and uploading the videos online as child sexual abuse material, police said on Thursday.
The accused have been identified as Kiran Kumar (29), hailing from Chitradurga district, and Aditya M K (20), hailing from Shivamogga district, they said.
A probe was initiated after information was received from the NCRP portal regarding a suspected instance of creation of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) for online dissemination, police said.
Accordingly, a case was registered at Kaggalipura Police Station under relevant sections of the IT Act on May 10, they added.
Investigation revealed that two minor girl victims were exploited and videos were created and uploaded to the internet. The child victims have subsequently recorded their statements as per procedure and further necessary legal steps have been taken, Pronab Mohanty Director General of Police, Cyber Command, said in a statement.
Based on the statements of the victims, the accused persons, who allegedly assaulted the minors, recorded the acts on mobile phones and uploaded the videos online, were arrested, he said.
Following the probe, sections 65(2) (rape) and 70 (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with relevant sections of the POCSO Act, have been added to the FIR, police said.
Officials collected relevant information and on May 12, arrested the accused persons and seized three mobile phones belonging to them, in which the videos had allegedly been recorded, he said.
The accused were later produced before the court and taken into police custody for further investigation, he added.
According to him, in CSAM cases, police usually apprehend offenders who have downloaded such content or have kept them in their possession after obtaining them from elsewhere, usually the internet.
"The present case is one of the very few instances where content creators and uploaders have been apprehended," Mohanty added.
