IMPORTANT POINT
The court ruled that allegations of sexual harassment under the POCSO Act must be evaluated on evidence, even amidst claims of family rivalry, necessitating a trial.

ORDER :

A. Badharudeen, J.

This Criminal Miscellaneous Case has been filed under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, to quash Annexure.A1 Final Report in Crime No.759/2021 of Pulpally Police Station, Wayanad, now pending as S.C. No.17/2022 on the files of the Special Court for the trial of cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act [hereinafter referred as 'POCSO Act' for short], Wayanad. The petitioner herein is the accused in the above case.

2. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Public Prosecutor, in detail. Also heard the learned counsel appearing for the defacto complainant. Perused the relevant materials available.

3. In this matter, the case of the prosecution is that, the victim aged 8 years, who was studying in the 3rd standard, while residing along with her parents and relatives at their residence, at about 08.00 pm on 06.12.2021, the accused herein, who has been residing in the nearby house, lifted his dhoti and showed his nakedness to the victim by standing on the courtyard of his house. The further allegation is that, the overt acts at the instance of the accused made the victim mentally shocked and she sat at the sitout for a while. All at once, the accused again lifted his dhoti and showed his groin to the victim. On this premise, the prosecution alleges commission of offences punishable under Section 509 of the Indian Penal Code and under Section 12 read with 11(i) of the POCSO Act by the petitioner/accused.

4. While assailing the prosecution case, the learned counsel for the petitioner vehemently argued that, the family of the victim and the accused are in rivalry and there are multiple litigations in between them. According to the learned counsel for the petitioner, the present FIR was registered on 11.12.2021, recording the statement of the minor victim regarding an occurrence on 06.12.2021. Prior to that, another crime vide Crime No.519/2021 was registered in relation to an occurrence on 23.08.2021 against the brother of the defacto complainant by the petitioner’s father. According to the learned counsel for the petitioner, Crime No.519/2021 was registered at Pulpalli Police Station, as per Annexure.A2 FIR against the brother of the defacto complainant, when he threatened and abused the petitioner's father. Thereafter, the petitioner’s father filed a complaint before the Joint Regional Transport Officer, Sulthan Batheri on 25.10.2022 to take appropriate action against the brother of the defacto complainant for creating nuisance to the petitioner's family by rising noise of the bike. Cancellation of the license of the brother of the defacto complainant was sought for therein. Copy of the said complaint is Annexure.A3. According to the learned counsel for the petitioner, later an agreement had been entered into between the families to settle the pending cases, with the intervention of mediators and Annexure.A4 is the copy of the said agreement dated 28.09.2021.

5. Later the victim’s father has filed a false complaint against the petitioner, his father, mother and sister, alleging that they had harassed his mentally challenged child and for which a complaint was lodged before the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Thiruvananthapuram. True copy of the complaint dated 08.11.2021 is Annexure.A5.

6. Thereafter the victim's father installed CCTV cameras at his house, focusing two cameras towards the residential house and kitchen of the petitioner's house to catch all befall springs in his house so as to affect his privacy. Accordingly, the accused has filed O.S. No.28/2022 before the Munsiff Court, Sulthan Bathery. An advocate commissioner visited the place and filed report. In the report, it was stated that the live view of camera 2 and 3 is focused on the front portion of the house of the petitioner and the commissioner viewed the same in the monitor. The Commission Report is marked as Annexure.A6.

7. According to the learned counsel for