Following the granting of a three-month interim bail to religious preacher Asaram Bapu, police in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, have heightened security measures at the residence of the rape survivor's family. The family, who have expressed concerns for their safety, will now need to inform the police before traveling outside the district. Asaram was convicted in 2018 for sexually assaulting a minor girl in 2013 and sentenced to life imprisonment. His latest conviction in Gujarat in 2023 resulted in another life sentence. The police have deployed a guard at the victim's house, provided personal gunners for her father and brother, and installed surveillance cameras. The police are also monitoring the area and have prohibited unauthorized gatherings. The victim's father expressed concern over Asaram's ability to manage his affairs from outside prison despite his health issues.
A Delhi court on Friday ordered framing of charges against former Wrestling Federation of India chief and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh in a sexual harassment case lodged by six female wrestlers.
Chief pontiff of Murugha Math Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, who has been arrested for alleged sexual abuse of two minor girls, was on Friday remanded to police custody till September 5.
Bus services between Karnataka and Maharashtra have been suspended following attacks on buses and their crew. The decision was taken given the tension prevailing in the border district of Belagavi over a sensitive issue. The language row began after a group of people allegedly intercepted a KSRTC bus and assaulted its conductor and driver for not speaking to a passenger in Marathi. The passenger, a minor girl, also filed a complaint stating that the conductor misbehaved with her. However, the family of the minor girl has decided to withdraw the case and urged people to stop escalating the matter into a language dispute between Karnataka and Maharashtra.
"Consensual sex has been in legal grey area because the consent given by minor cannot be said to be a valid consent in the eyes of law. The short question which arises is as to whether the petitioner (man) should be granted bail or not," the Delhi HC said.
A special court in Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur on Tuesday sentenced a PhD scholar to five life imprisonments, to be served concurrently, for sexually assaulting minors and posting videos of the acts on the Internet to make money, officials said.
A Jodhpur police team visited sacked Rajasthan minister Rajendra Gudha's official residence in Jaipur on Thursday in connection with the investigation of a rape case registered against two men under the POCSO Act, officials said.
Police in Thane have arrested a school principal and staff member after allegations that girl students were forced to strip to check for menstruation. The incident sparked outrage among parents, leading to protests and a police investigation.
The Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing for November 12 to address the statutory age of consent for adolescents, emphasizing the need for a continuous and comprehensive examination of the issue. The Centre defends the current age of consent, while an amicus curiae suggests lowering it.
The alleged crime in the ambulance being operated under '108' emergency service took place on November 22 and two of the four accused in the case, including the driver, have been arrested, they said.
The accused, who is above 50 years of age and an athletics coach, is currently lodged in Tihar Jail under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Section 375 (rape) of IPC has an exception clause which says "sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape."
The survivor's father claimed the family had been cheated by their lawyer who did not file an objection to Asaram's bail plea despite getting all the papers ready.
The police sub-inspector accused of raping a minor girl in Rajasthan's Dausa district has been arrested and a case registered against him under relevant sections, including Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the SC/ST Act, officials said on Saturday.
A sessions court in Indore has acquitted a bangle seller from a minority community, accused of molesting a minor girl, noting that the prosecution failed to establish its case even by 'leshmatra' (an iota).
The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside an order of the Calcutta high court in which it acquitted an accused in a sexual assault case and made 'objectionable' observations advising adolescent girls to 'control sexual urges'.
Groping a minor's breast without 'skin to skin contact' cannot be termed as sexual assault as defined under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the Bombay high court has said.
The Supreme Court, which quashed the controversial skin-to-skin judgment of the Bombay high court in a case under the POCSO Act, said on Thursday that this was the second instance where the attorney general filed an appeal on the criminal side challenging a high court order.
After he was set free, the seer was staying at the Virakta Math in Davangere, from where he was arrested by the Chitradurga police on on Monday.
His comments come in the backdrop of the state government deciding to bring stringent laws and evoking the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act to check child marriages and underage motherhood.
On January 19, the high court had said that groping a minor's breast without "skin to skin contact" cannot be termed as sexual assault as defined under the POCSO Act.
The Madras High Court has asserted that press freedom and privacy are intertwined and that surveillance constitutes an attack on the press, which is considered the fourth pillar of democracy. The court made this observation while addressing petitions filed by the Chennai Press Club and three reporters seeking protection from harassment by a police Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the leak of an FIR concerning a sexual assault case at Anna University. The court highlighted the importance of protecting journalists' sources and criticized the SIT for seizing reporters' mobile phones without justification and for failing to adequately investigate the source of the leaked FIR.
The accused has been apprehended, a senior police officer said.
IPL side Royal Challengers Bengaluru's under-fire pacer Yash Dayal has been accused of raping a minor in an FIR registered against him by Jaipur Police.
The matter came to light after the minor girl's father submitted a complaint with the police regarding the incident that took place under the Jubilee Hills police station limits on May 28.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Augustine George Masih observed it was pained to say that some of the observations made in the high court order depicted total insensitiveness and an inhuman approach.
The petitioner said that he and the "victim" engaged in consensual sex and there is nothing on record to show the use of force and the FIR was registered only at the behest of the girl's family.
The Supreme Court Wednesday agreed to hear a plea filed by the National Commission for Women (NCW) challenging the Bombay high court verdict which said that groping a minor's breast without 'skin to skin contact' cannot be termed as sexual assault as defined under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The NCPCR asked Facebook for taking appropriate action against the Instagram profile of Gandhi over violation of provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, and the Indian Penal Code, and demanded the removal of the video from the platform.
Her family members had gone to the youth's house to complain against him for uploading the girl's photos online, but they were abused by them, police said.
Gandhi on Wednesday met the family of the nine-year-old girl and asserted that he is with them on the path to justice and "will not back down even an inch".
Additional Sessions Judge Saurabh Kulshreshtha sentenced Thakur to life imprisonment for remainder of his natural life.
Senior-most judge of the Supreme Court Justice U U Lalit, who is in line to become the next Chief Justice of India (CJI), has been part of several landmark judgments including the one which held the practice of divorce through instant 'triple talaq' among Muslims illegal and unconstitutional.
The government also took note of pending cases in various high courts and said that 1.66 lakh cases relating to sexual assaults were pending across the country at several stages.
The Kerala high court on Wednesday reduced to 10 years, the 20 year jail term awarded by a lower court to a defrocked priest convicted in the Kottiyoor rape case.
Union Minister Raksha Khadse on Sunday lodged a police complaint regarding the harassment of her daughter and some of her friends by a group of boys at an event in Maharashtra's Jalgaon district.
The wrestlers, who had been protesting at Jantar Mantar since April 23 seeking the arrest of Singh, were removed from the site by the Delhi Police on Sunday after they tried to march to the new Parliament building that was inaugurated the same day.
The Delhi Police has registered a first information report (FIR) against Twitter for allegedly allowing access to child pornography on the microblogging platform on a complaint by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), officials said.
Nearly 3,000 polling booths have been identified as sensitive, and special security arrangements, including drone surveillance, have been ensured at some of these locations.
'If it is not reversed, it will set a dangerous precedent.'
