HC raps Mumbai police for summoning child witness to police station

The Bombay High Court today castigated the city police for summoning repeatedly a child witness to the police station for recording his statement in a case of alleged rape of his three-year-old class mate by the school's trustee, a French national.

Justice Revati Mohite Dere expressed her anger saying that the police were defeating the purpose of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act by not adhering to the laid down procedures for probe into a case under the Act.

Justice Dere vent off her ire after coming to know that the police had summoned the child witness and his father to the police station to record their statements in the case of rape, allegedly committed last May by the trustee of an international school of the city.

Irked by the information about summoning of the child witness, Justice Dere said, "If the police keep summoning children to police stations like this, the parents are naturally bound to feel that it was just adding to the trauma. It is very disturbing to note that the child and his father had to go to the police station on several occasions."