The Karnataka High Court has dismissed the plea of a gynaecologist for quashing the FIR against him, registered under the Pocso Act, for allegedly failing to report the incident of a sexual assault on minor to the police.
In the judgement delivered on June 2 but made available now, Justice M. Nagaprasanna had maintained that the accused in the case has allegedly terminated the minor victim’s pregnancy and failed to report the same to the police and this is a serious dereliction. As the prescribed punishment is merely six months, the petitioner should not be left off the hook, he said.
The accused runs a hospital in Chikkamagaluru. The victim and her friends had approached the petitioner and said that she is suffering severe bleeding after taking abortion pills. The accused had performed abortion and was discharged. One month after the incident, a Pocso case was registered and subsequently the doctor was booked by the police for not informing them about the incident.
The bench also pulled up the accused for failing to recognise his experience of 35 years and still failing to know that the victim was 12 years and 11 months old when her pregnancy was terminated medically.
The bench also raised a concern that non reporting of such cases would result in offenders getting away from the clutches of law, which defeats the very objective of the Pocso Act.
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