The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act is gender neutral, allowing for prosecution of women for sexual offences against male minors, and delays in reporting do not invalidate proceedings.

ORDER :

1. The petitioner, the sole accused, now seeks sanctuary before this Court invoking its extraordinary jurisdiction under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C. challenging the legality of proceedings initiated in Spl.C.C.No.2050 of 2024 pending before the Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge, Bangalore City (FTSC-1) arising out of crime in Crime No.533 of 2024, a case which bears grave imprint of offences alleged under Sections 4 and 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (‘Act’ for short).

2. The brief tapestry of facts, interwoven, are as follows:-

2.1. The 2^nd respondent is the complainant. It is the case of the prosecution that the 2^nd respondent with her husband one Bipin Therat Sethumadhavan and two children – Master Xxxxx aged about 13 years and Miss. Bhadra Priya, aged about 10 years were residing in a rented villa, Villa No.132 of Adharsh Vista, a community living at Doddanekundi, Bangalore since 2020. The Adharsh vista community living consisted of 200 villas. The petitioner is a resident at Villa No.127, residing at the said place since 22 years. The complainant and the family come to reside at the neighbouring villa. The bond of neighbourly warmth blossomed between the complainant’s family and the petitioner, who was reputedly an accomplished Artist, offering Art lessons to the children of the community. The children drawn by the lure of colors and creativity, frequently visited the house of the complainant, so did the victim. The victim is then said to have developed an affinity that deepened into frequent exchanges of messages and numerous visits.

2.2. The 2^nd respondent/complainant and the family is said to have decided to settle down in Dubai. Therefore, they vacated the Villa on 22-08-2020 and went Dubai. The son was admitted to a school in Dubai and they continued to stay in Dubai for a period of 4 years. After the examination of the son, they returned back to India and gone to Cochin and after visiting Cochin come to Bangalore; straight drove to the jurisdictional police station where the complainant registered a complaint of sexual abuse of the petitioner upon her son (hereinafter referred to as the ‘victim’). The crux of the complaint was that, the victim boy throughout the 4 years in Dubai was not active and had psychological changes in him. When the mother confronted the son, the victim boy is said to have confessed that the petitioner had called him to her house for four or five months on a continuous basis, between February and June 2020 and the conversation initially began and led to downloading some art pictures on Instagram and the petitioner had then taken him to her bedroom, unrobed herself and also the victim and asked the boy to commit the act of intercourse on her and after that is said to have sent him threatening, that if he would reveal anything to anybody, it would be dangerous to both of them. This is the beginning of the activity.

2.3. Thereafter, on 17-05-2020 on another occasion, a girl by name Shreya had come to the house of the petitioner and, therefore, the victim boy also goes there and on that day after sending the girl Sherya out, the victim boy was again subjected to sexual abuse by the petitioner. The complaint then becomes a crime in crime No.533 of 2024 for offences punishable under Sections 4 and 6 of the Act. The Police then conduct investigation and file a charge sheet against the petitioner for the afore-quoted offences. The concerned Court, in terms of its order dated 29-10- 2024 takes cognizance of the offence and issues summons to the petitioner. It is then the petitioner immediately knocks at the doors of this Court in the subject petition.

2.4. Prima facie, due to certain delay in registration of crime, this Court had granted an interim order of stay of further trial against the petitioner which is still in subsistence. The matter was heard and reserved for its judgment on 12-06-2025. The learned senior counsel for the petitioner moves the matter the