The Bombay High Court dismissed an FIR filed against a minor under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The FIR was filed by the accused girl’s classmate, who allegedly received sexually-laced messages from a sender disguised as a man.
However, when the police started investigating the case, they discovered that those messages were sent by the classmate, who also happens to be a minor.
On Tuesday, a bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam A Ankhad dismissed the FIR after the Additional Public Prosecutor, SV Gavand, informed the court that the accused had gone to the classmate’s residence and apologised, accepting the demand of the girl’s father.
The High Court’s decision came a week after it suggested the classmate’s father withdraw the FIR, treating the accused as his other daughter. “You don’t have one daughter, but two. Both are your daughters only,” the Chief Justice said.
The incident created a stir as it involved multiple layers of online harassment. At first, it was the girl’s classmate who received sexually explicit messages. Her social media posts were also flooded with those comments.
Later, when the girl blocked the number, her mother started receiving the messages. When her mother also blocked it, the unknown number created a WhatsApp group with the classmate’s friends and began sending the same messages.
Following these multiple rounds of harassment, the classmate’s family ran to the police and filed an FIR.
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