The court released the convict of POCSO Act. symbolic picture
Law correspondent, Patna. Patna High Court has given a big relief to the convicted Pawan Kumar Mandal, who was sentenced to life imprisonment under the POCSO Act, and has canceled the conviction and sentence order passed by the lower court.
The division bench of Justice Bibek Chaudhary and Justice Dr. Anshuman said that in cases of special law like POCSO, it is the responsibility of the prosecution to prove that the age of the victim is below 18 years by legal and concrete evidence, in which it failed.
The court clarified that primary evidence such as school certificate, matriculation or birth certificate was not collected to determine the age. In such a situation, it is not safe to declare the victim a minor on the basis of ossification test report only, because a difference of up to one to two years is possible in this test.
The two had a long-term love affair.
Giving benefit of doubt to the accused is an established principle of justice. The division bench, while evaluating the evidence, also found that the two had a long-term love affair and the physical relationship was consensual.
The testimony of the villagers seeing both of them in objectionable position was also on record. Medical examination revealed no obvious signs of recent coercion.
Citing the recent decisions of the Supreme Court, the Court said that mere breakdown of the relationship or non-existence of marriage cannot give a criminal color to a consensual relationship.
In these circumstances the prosecution failed to prove the charge. As a result, while canceling the 2019 decision of the Trial Court, Bhagalpur, the High Court ordered the immediate release of the accused.