MADURAI: Human rights monitoring network ‘People’s Watch’ from Madurai had today requested the Chief Justice of Madras High Court to take suo moto action in the case of alleged inhuman police action on a POCSO case victim where “on November 7th 2023 a woman constable took a 15-year-old POCSO victim to the court to record a statement by handcuffing from bus stand to the court in Ooty.”
Mr.Henri Tiphagne, honorary executive director of human rights organization People’s Watch, had written a letter from Madurai on 25th November 2023 to the Madras High Court Chief Justice Mr.Sanjay Vijaykumar Gangapurwala to immediately take up this case suo moto so that it becomes an educational case for those who continue this practice of handcuffing.
“It has appeared in news media that on November 7th 2023 a woman constable took 15-yr-old POCSO victim to the court to record a statement in the case. The victim was accompanied by a woman police constable from Annai Sathya Home to the magistrate court in Kotagiri to record a statement under Section 164. The woman constable took the victim in a bus to Kotagiri from Ooty. Once, they deboarded the bus at Kotagiri bus stand, the woman police constable handcuffed the victim, walked nearly 400 meters and reached the court. The handcuffs were removed only at court entrance, and after the statement was recorded in the court, the police constable handcuffed the victim again near the court premises and made her to walk to the bus stand on public road. On November 15th 2023, the victim’s mother had complained to the police SP in Ooty. But the police treatment towards the victim was contrary to POCSO Act guidelines by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development. The inhumane police action of handcuffing is a violation of rights. We appeal for initiating of an independent enquiry. In the name of enquiry into the complaint, a higher police official visited the victim at Annai Sathya Home in Ooty and threatened…obtained the sign of the victim on a paper without allowing the victim to read it,” Mr.Henri Tiphagne, Executive Director of People’s Watch, has said in the press release requesting the Chief Justice of Madras High Court and Tamil Nadu State Human Rights Commission to take sup moto cognizance of this matter.
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