Bengaluru: Whenever Mr Ramananda A.D., a senior advocate, sees this 11-year-old girl, he curses the system for not delivering justice. He is sad over the handling of Pocso cases (child rape cases) in the country.
He remembers how the system in the United States, where he represented a case of sexual abuse victims, brought the culprit to book in just two months after a complaint was filed. He is fighting yet another case back in India and he finds the system insensitive as years are rolling by and the trial is not complete yet.
A tale of horror
Advocate Ramananda did not even in the wildest of his dreams imagine the barbarity of the crime when a woman walked into his office with a three-year-old baby and a seven-year-old daughter.
The woman, who was a widow, had a girl from an earlier marriage, and she later married a man settled in the US. After taking them to the US, the man started sexually abusing his wife and the daughter.
He abused the girl in front of her mother and his savage behaviour had scared them to silence. He filmed the acts and blackmailed them. Later, when the mother became pregnant, he tortured the girl. After the baby was born, he continued to have sex with the girl baby.
The mother wanted a divorce from him, and the horror she went through came out during counselling. Ramananda immediately wrote to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the US about the incident.
The authorities got in touch with the advocate in no time, arranged for the visa immediately and Mr Ramananda went to the US with the victims.
After the investigation, the court awarded 100 year jail to the offender as he confessed to the crime.
The victims were sent to the rehabilitation centre. “There is a concept for victims to come out of the trauma... You forget all the people you know and start knowing only new people,” Mr Ramananda explained.
“My friend from the US, with whom I stayed during the investigation, told me that the FBI further investigated the case, busted a big racket and arrested around 250 people. The convicted man was sending the videos of his insane acts with minor girl, his baby daughter and wife to these people,” he said.
A similar case in India
Mr Ramananda got another case of a distraught woman and her daughter through the reference of a reputed person.
After legal counselling, the woman and the daughter narrated their horror story of sexual abuse. After hearing the plight of the wife and considering the barbaric acts on his seven-year-old daughter, the High Court ordered the immediate arrest of the husband.
But unfortunately the trial in the case has not started even after almost two years. The accused has filed a petition that Sections 29 and 30 of Pocso Act are unconstitutional. Considering his plea, the court has issued a stay on the trial.
“I have challenged the order of the court. There is a Supreme Court guideline that the trial in Pocso cases should conclude within six months and the case shall be disposed of in one year. I am fighting to get justice,” he explains.
Ray of hope
The Supreme Court took up a suo motu writ petition over “alarming rise in the number of reported child rape incidents”, through its order on July 12, 2019.
“I see an opportunity to bring the matter to the notice of the Supreme Court and I have filed an interim application before the court,” he says. In his application, he has stated that he has been providing shelter, food and schooling for the victims for the last three years. “The victims have been deserted by her mother’s side and the victims of several untold sufferings due to lackadaisical approach of the police and the trial of the case,” the statement reads.
