21 July,2014 06:54 AM IST | | Shiva Devnath
Despite mother’s complaint and a medical report, Tilak Nagar police registered an NC for breach of peace and criminal intimidation, and let the accused go after local politicos intervened
For all the talk about protecting women and children and, failing that, at least ensuring that the accused are brought to book, the Mumbai police doesn't seem to have given up its negligence in registering FIRs.
Four days after a Chembur woman went to the Tilak Nagar police station to complain that her 14-year-old son had been sodomised by three men, an FIR is yet to be registered in the case. Allegedly bowing to pressure from local politicians, the police filed only a non-cognisable complaint (NC) and let the accused go.
Representational pic
According to the survivor's mother, on July 11, the boy had gone out to buy some medicines when he met Vishal Londhe, who stays in the same area. Londhe offered to go with the boy and when they were returning from the chemist's, took him to his grandmother's house in the area, which was empty.
He bought some liquor and asked two of his friends, Deepak Bhalerao and Ganpat Patil, to come over. After drinking, the trio sodomised the boy and let him go. The survivor got home around 11.30 pm and hit the bed without telling anyone what had happened.
He complained of pain for a couple of days and when he realised that the bleeding wasn't stopping, asked his mother to take him to a doctor on July 16. Seeing the boy's condition, the doctor asked his mother to take him to a private hospital. After a medical exam, the doctors at the hospital figured out what had happened and asked the mother to talk to the boy. That's when he told her about the incident.
Armed with the medical report, she took the boy to Tilak Nagar police station to file an FIR. She alleged that the on-duty officer filed only an NC and asked them to go. After repeated complaints, the police detained the accused, but released them after local politicians came to their rescue.
The complaint was registered under sections 504 (insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), instead of registering an FIR under Section 377 (unnatural sex) of the IPC and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
