The Bombay High Court has granted bail to a 33-year-old man accused of assaulting three minor boys on their private parts on suspicion of being thieves, noting that there was no sexual intent involved in the case.
A single bench of Justice Anil Kilor, in an order dated June 21 and made available on Monday, granted bail to Kapil Taak. The court noted that the case pertained solely to physical and mental torture.
Taak was arrested in 2021 on charges of unnatural offence, assault, and criminal intimidation under the Indian Penal Code, as well as for sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Taak and the other accused allegedly stripped the three teenage boys, assaulted them with leather belts, inserted fingers into their anus, and applied balm to their private parts. Taak is also accused of filming the incident on a mobile phone.
"After going through the FIR and the allegations made in the FIR against the applicant, prima facie nothing is brought on record to show that there was any sexual intent," the bench stated.
The bench emphasised that the case involved "physical and mental torture meted out to the minor victims" as Taak and the other accused believed the victims were thieves.
Taak's advocate Sana Khan argued that the provisions of the POCSO would not apply in this case as there was no sexual intent. She pointed out that Taak had been languishing in jail since 2021, and a chargesheet in the case has already been filed.
The complaint against Taak and others was lodged by the mother of one of the minor victims in April 202 after she noticed some people watching a video where some minor boys were being assaulted and abused in their private parts.
The woman identified one of the boys as her son.
As per the complaint, the accused persons had forced the boys to accompany them from a local market and taken them to a secluded spot where they were assaulted.
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