The Kerala High Court has held that when serious offences of rape under the IPC or the POCSO Act are prima facie made out, then even the victim's plea for quashing the case "has no preference".
The High Court's ruling came on a plea by the victim and her mother seeking to quash the case against her dance teacher and his wife booked under various provisions of the IPC, including a section that deals with rape, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The victim in her statements to the police had narrated the various instances when the dance teacher allegedly had sexual relations with her in 2015, when she was a minor, on the promise of getting her a chance to to act in films and reality shows.
He had sex with her by promising to marry her, the victim told police.
When the dance teacher married someone else, the victim told his wife about their affair. The woman then told the victim that she too could marry the dance teacher, according to the statements the victim made to the police.
Subsequently, the wife also aided and abetted the sexual relations between the dance teacher and the victim, according to the statements to police.
However, the victim, in 2020 when she became an adult, in her statement before a magistrate recanted her accusations and denied that she was raped or molested by the dance teacher or that his wife aided in the said acts.
In her statement before the magistrate, she said she was compelled to make the accusations against her dance teacher and his wife.
The victim's mother, who had filed the complaint, had also recanted the accusations and sought quashing of the case.
Rejecting the plea for quashing the case, the High Court said that the matters of very serious offences alleged to be committed by the accused persons against a minor victim, including offences under the POCSO Act, "are prima facie read out from the prosecution records".
"Therefore, such a case could not be quashed, merely acting on the 164 CrPC statement (before a magistrate), which is not in parity with the other statements of the victim and the defacto complainant (mother) and also acting on the averments raised in the affidavits filed by the defacto complainant and the victim.
"Therefore, the prayer to quash the proceedings is liable to fail. It is held further that when quashment of serious offence under section 376 (rape) of IPC and offences under the POCSO Act is sought, when prima facie the offences are made out, quashment prayer at the instance of the victim has no preference," the court said.
The court dismissed the plea of the victim and her mother to quash the case and directed the accused to cooperate with the trial.
The High Court also directed the trial court to "expedite the trial and complete the same at any rate within a period of three months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order".
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