A district court in the Thane district of Maharashtra has ordered that a case of perjury — giving false evidence under oath to mislead the court — be filed against a girl who had falsely accused her father of rape. Since she was a minor at the time of the incident, he was booked under stringent provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, and ended up spending three years in jail.
The case was being heard by Thane Additional Sessions Judge Mridula Bhatia, who took a serious view of the false allegations levelled by the girl — who was a mere teenager at the time of the filing of the complaint. She also cleared the father of all charges under the POCSO Act.
According to a PTI report, the case is from 2003, when the girl was only 16-years-old. She had filed a complaint with the police saying her father had molested and raped her at their Navi Mumbai residence. Because she was underage at the time, he was booked under provisions of the POCSO Act, which has since then been fortified even more in view of the rising number of cases of sexual violence against minors.
The complainant later told the court, during the deposition, that she had filed a false complaint against her father because there had been some kind of a dispute between the two of them. It effectively nullified her complaint.
The judge, while delivering the verdict on Thursday, December 24, that would clear the accused of all charges, said: "The complainant has undoubtedly misused the provisions of POCSO Act and lodged a false complaint against her own father, thereby causing him grave hardship, mental agony and trauma. He has spent close to three years in jail owing to serious allegations levelled against him."
It was then that the judge ordered that the girl be tried for perjury under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code. She also said while ordering that judicial proceedings begin against the girl that "this action on the girl should send a strong message to the society against the misuse of POCSO Act," according to the PTI report.
