HC links rape of minor to trafficking network, warns against leniency in POCSO cases

Little did a 15-year-old girl from a poor family know that when she went to a neighbour’s house seeking medical and financial help in June 2022, it would mark the beginning of a harrowing ordeal. She was allegedly drugged, sexually assaulted by multiple men and passed from one accused to another — circumstances which the Punjab and Haryana High Court asserted appeared to be a part of a broader pattern rooted in trafficking networks targeting the most vulnerable sections of society. The Bench further held that any leniency in such cases would embolden the menace and defeat the very object of child protection laws.

Justice Namit Kumar made it clear that cases like these were not isolated incidents, but part of a disturbing trend in which minor girls from economically weaker backgrounds were exploited by organised groups. The Bench noted that such crimes appeared to be rooted in immoral child and human trafficking networks, which were “actively prevalent” in certain sections of society.

The observations came as Justice Namit Kumar dismissed the anticipatory bail plea of a woman accused of facilitating the victim’s sexual exploitation. An FIR in the matter was registered on July 1, 2022, for kidnapping, rape and other offences registered under the provisions of the IPC at a police station in Rohtak district.

The petitioner was residing as a tenant in the house the victim visited seeking help. Justice Namit Kumar asserted the court had “no hesitation” in holding that the facts of the case bore the unmistakable “smell” of being connected to trafficking rackets.

“The facts and circumstances of the present case also ‘smell’ of having roots in the immoral child/human trafficking networks, which nowadays are actively prevalent in the weaker sections of the society,” the court asserted.

Justice Kumar warned that extending protection to such accused persons “in the wake of increasing menace and rising crimes under the provisions of POCSO Act” would “have wrong impact on the society at large, especially on the weaker sections of the society, being the most vulnerable lot.” It added that granting bail “would go against the object and purpose of the legislature, which has enacted the POCSO Act as special enactment, which aimed at providing robust protection to children from sexual offences.”

Dismissing the plea, Justice Kumar said the facts indicated that the victim was “enticed by the present petitioner and facilitated her sexual exploitation by delivering her custody from one accused to another, where she wept profusely to be allowed to return home, but could not rescue herself being helpless and trapped.”

The court, at the same time, also directed the trial court to expedite the proceedings.

Haryana Tribune