Maneka for strict action in Assam minor abuse case

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 1

Amid evidence of an attempted cover-up in a case of alleged sexual assault of a minor by her foster father in Karimganj, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi has asked the Assam Government for stern action in the matter.

Gandhi, who recently led revolutionary amendments to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) 2015, has urged Assam CM Sarbanand Sonowal to ensure justice for the child who faced sexual abuse at the hands of her foster father for months with the foster father evading arrest.

The Cabinet this week proposed amendments to POCSO Act significantly raising the minimum prison sentences for convicts of child sexual abuse and providing death penalty for aggravated sexual assault of a child. The Assam case qualifies as aggravated sexual assault defined as assault by a person in a position of trust.

Meanwhile, the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), India’s apex adoption and foster care review body under the WCD Ministry, has directed the Deputy Commissioner, Cachar, to send action-taken report to the Centre in this case.

In his letter, CARA Chief Executive Officer Deepak Kumar has cited POSCO Act and Model Juvenile Justice Rules to say that the minor, after being placed in foster care on May 9, 2018, was sexually abused by the foster father for months before being surrendered back by the foster mother on August 30, 2018.

“The child was sexually abused (confirmed by the medical report) by the foster father for over three months and still continued to be kept with the abusive family despite facts being known to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) of Cachar and District Child Protection Officer. Even after sexual assault of the girl was confirmed, the CWC failed to take action against the abuser father in violation of Section 19 of POCSO Act. After the FIR was filed by the child care institution which was housing the child, the local police seem to have connived with the abusive family by getting the child’s age ascertained as over 18 years so that the abuser foster father could get bail as the case was not registered under POCSO Act, which makes child sexual assault non-bailable,” Deepak Kumar’s letter to the DC Cachar says.

The shocker came to light last week after Diba Roy, Secretary of Silchar-based Nivedita Nari Sangstha, approached the Centre with details of the case showing how Cachar CWC declared the foster family in question “a fit family” under the law to care for a girl child; how the 13-year-old was sent to foster parents; how she twice reported inappropriate touch by foster father; how the CWC ignored facts and counseled the child to return to the family until August 30 when the foster mother surrendered the girl back.

The WCD Ministry is now asking the Assam Police and Cachar CWC tough questions afterthe police subjected the child to an ossification test and claimed she is a major and so POCSO Act won’t apply against foster father Gopal Das, named in the FIR under IPC Section 354 (molestation).