Assam: Dhubri Court's landmark ruling against complainant for filing false POCSO FIR

In a historic decision of court happened in Assam, where the Additional Sessions Judge cum Special Judge, POCSO, Dhubri authorised the bench assistant of the court to lodged complaint against complainant for filing a false First Information Report (FIR) against one individual under POCSO Act, in Dhubri.

It is to be mentioned that, on 13 October 2023 an FIR was registered bearing special case no. 371/2023 at Agomoni police station in Dhubri district. The accused Alomgir Rahman was detained on 30 November 2023 and incarcerated until 30 January 2024. The informant Kudrat Ali, 16 years old victim's father, made serious allegations in the FIR, including the rape of his underage daughter, taking of nude images of her under threat, and blackmail based on those photographs.

During the on going judicial trial, after five odd months the informant Kudrat Ali, victim's father, made a remarkable statement in the court by saying that, he filed the FIR out of anger because the accused frequently offered marriage to his daughter, and now Ali wants to stop the judicial procedure. If such practices continue, cases under the POCSO Act would lose their seriousness and responsiveness said, Rituparna Guha, the special public prosecutor of the court.

Despite the false allegations, bench assistant Saurav Karmakar submitted a written complaint under Section 22 of the POCSO Act against Kudrat Ali, the informant in Special Case No. 371/2023, for filing a false FIR against Alomgir Rahman, as directed by Mamta Bhadani, Additional Sessions Judge cum Special Judge, POCSO, Dhubri.

In light of this, a case has been filed against the defendant, Ali, bearing Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) case no. 3366/2024 in accordance with the relevant penal statute. Rituparna Guha, the special public prosecutor, and Jonali Devi, the investigating officer WSI(P), will lead the case's witness testimony.

On various occasions allegation of compromise of a case under POCSO Act for money at the behest of the police officers and advocates issued a slew of directions to curb the menace of sextortion and observed that the false accusations of sexual assault would ridicule serious crime "turning it into something frivolous which can never be the intention of law makers." 

Disheartening the penal laws, which were put in place to protect and defend the survivors of sexual assault are being used today as weapon by certain evil intentioned members of society to extort money from the public for illegal gains or taking revenge, creating fear in the minds of targeted people to cause injury to their honour, capitalising and preying on their fear, vulnerability and helplessness.

Based on the CJM case no. 3366/2024, the case will be continued further against the victim's father Kudrat Ali, in Dhubri for filing a false FIR against Alomgir Rahman, Ali, who tried to mislead the court of Additional Sessions Judge cum Special Judge, POCSO, Dhubri.

Also read: Manipur: NSCN(IM) cadres allegedly open fire at Congress candidate's meeting in Ukhrul, second attack in a week