Man Accused Of Sexually Assaulting 2-Yr-Old Acquitted Due To Spelling Error, HC Changes Verdict

Chennai: The Madras High Court of Tamil Nadu has made a big disclosure on the accused of POCSO Act. Here a woman had filed a petition in the Madras High Court against the acquittal of a man accused of sexually assaulting her two-year-old daughter. Hearing on which a division bench of the Madras High Court of Justice P Velmurugan has changed the decision of the lower court.

According to the News Minute news website, this case is from the year 2017 when a woman left her two-year-old and nine-month-old daughter in the care of a neighbor while going to the market. After which the neighbor sexually abused her. On coming to know about the sexual abuse of the daughter, the woman had booked the neighbor under the POCSO Act. At the same time, the POCSO court had acquitted the accused neighbor due to the spelling mistake made during the trial.

At present, while hearing the matter, the Madras High Court has overturned the decision of the POCSO Court. The High Court’s order dated July 2, 2021 shows that the defense counsel had taken advantage of the spelling mistake made during the trial. Actually, when the woman’s statement was recorded, the word “Semen” in English was typed as “Semman” in Tamil.

During that time, due to a mistake made by the typist, the defense lawyer said that the mother has mentioned ‘Semman Colour’ in her evidence which means red-colored soil. Due to which the accused was acquitted in the POCSO court. At the same time, during the hearing of the case after the petition was filed in the High Court, Justice P Velmurugan overturned the decision of the POCSO Court.

In the case, it has been clearly said by the Madras High Court that even the trial courts are sometimes not using their brains. They are only looking for evidence beyond reasonable doubt and by taking advantage of the flaw in the investigation, they are giving the benefit of the doubt to the accused. In such cases, we cannot give much importance to the technical basis of the evidence.

At the same time, the Madras High Court said that ‘the victim, in this case, is a child, due to which she cannot explain her statement and crime. In such a situation, the words of the victim’s mother should be trusted. The High Court said that just because the child cannot speak, it should not mean that the offender is allowed to escape from the clutches of law.