Mom’s word on child’s abuse best evidence: Calcutta HC

KOLKATA: A mother’s evidence in a case of this nature is the best evidence, observed the Calcutta High Court on Thursday even as it dismissed the appeal of a man, convicted of committing unnatural offences on the three-year-old daughter of a neighbour.
The single-judge bench of Justice Shampa Dutt (Paul) said, “Mother is a shield who protects her child against any harm...Cases of this nature do not come with eyewitnesses, and one should not expect it, as such acts are done in private, being against nature and law.”
The convict, Asghar Ali, had appealed against a 2017 judgment by an additional sessions court in Barackpore that had convicting him of committing unnatural assault on a three-year-old child. He was sentenced to seven-year rigorous imprisonment and another three months on default of Rs 5,000 payment.
The mother lodged a police complaint in 2009, saying she had caught the neighbour sexually abusing her daughter in his room, where there was no one else. According to the prosecution, the girl was playing outside their house when the appellant took her to his room. As the child did not return for a while, the mother became suspicious and peeped through the window to find the man sexually abusing her daughter. She ran into his room and rescued her child. Her screams drew a crowd.
Ali’s counsel told the HC he was being tried based on the mother’s evidence only. He argued the nine witnesses did not prove the prosecution and no injury was found on the child. He said the examination under Sec 313 of CrPC was illegal and the punishment too severe. Dismissing it, the HC said, “This is a mother, who without wasting time, filed a complaint and went to court... The motherly instinct... led her to her child who was being molested and abused in a heartless and perverted manner.”