Sexual Violence Against Minors

A polygamist religious leader who claimed more than 20 spiritual wives including 10 underage girls faces decades in prison at his sentencing on Monday for coercing girls as young as 9 years old to submit to criminal sex acts with him and other adults. Samuel Bateman, whose small group was an offshoot of the sect once led by Warren Jeffs, has pleaded guilty to a years-long scheme to transport girls across state lines for his sex crimes, and later to kidnap some of them from protective custody. His plea agreement called for 20 to 50 years in prison, though each conviction carries a possible life sentence. But first, a federal judge will hear from a doctor who evaluated Bateman's competency. The question could determine whether the sentencing goes forward or Bateman is remanded to state custody for psychiatric treatment until he's deemed mentally fit to assist in his defence, his attorney Brian Russo said. Authorities say that Bateman, 48, tried to start an offshoot of the ...

The accused, lodged in Taloja Central Jail since August for alleged assault, was being taken to Thane for investigation into a separate 2021 sexual assault case filed by his ex-wife

A teacher of physical education and seven others have been arrested in connection with the sexual harassment of a 12-year-old girl student at a private school in Pimpri Chinchwad in Pune, police said on Saturday. Based on a complaint lodged by the girl's parents at Nigdi police station, the police arrested the accused on Friday, an official said. The teacher was previously jailed on the charges of molestation, but the school reinstated him after his release, he said. According to the complaint, the teacher had been allegedly sexually harassing the girl for the last two years, the official said. "The accused allegedly touched the girl inappropriately during the PE classes and would wait for her outside the women's washroom. He also threatened her on multiple occasions," he said. The accused have been booked under sections 74 (assault or use of criminal force with intent to outrage a woman's modesty), 78 (stalking), 79 (word, gesture, or act intended to insult a woman's modesty), 35

The apex child rights body NCPCR has summoned Netflix officials next Monday for allegedly showing "sexually explicit content" on its platform that is accessible to minors. No immediate reaction was available from Netflix on the matter. In a letter to Netflix officials on Tuesday, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) said "unrestricted accessibility of explicit content" on Netflix to minors constitutes a violation of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act-2012. The NCPCR said it had written to Netflix earlier in June on the same matter but no response was received. "Now, therefore, the commission in pursuance of the functions and powers (under) order Section 14 of CPCR Act 2005 requires you to appear in person physically before the commission along with the details of the action taken in this matter at 1500 hours on July 29, 2024," the letter said.

At least 14 police personnel were injured after a group of persons allegedly pelted them with stones demanding the custody of a man, who was arrested for sexually assaulting and killing a six-year-old girl at Jamner in Maharashtra's Jalgaon district, police said on Friday. The incident of stone-pelting occurred around 9.30 pm on Thursday outside the Jamner police station, they said. "A six-year-old girl was allegedly abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered at Chinchkheda Shivar village in Jamner on the night of June 11. The accused person had fled away from the spot taking advantage of darkness," an official said. "The police had launched a search for the accused, who was finally arrested on Thursday. But after getting information about his arrest, the deceased girl's family members, their relatives and local residents gathered outside the police station demanding that the accused be handed over to them so that they can punish him for the heinous crime," he said. The people start

The Allahabad High Court has directed that in cases of sexual offences against children, police must ensure that a medical report determining the victim's age is drawn up at the outset and is submitted to the court without any delay. The court said discrepancies in the victim's age in POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) cases can substantially affect the rights and liberties of the accused. It granted bail to Ghaziabad-resident Aman, alias Vansh, who was lodged in the jail since December 5, 2023 last year in a POCSO case. "False depiction of a victim as a minor in POCSO Act cases is an abuse of the process of court." Justice Ajay Bhanot said on Tuesday. He observed that the victim's age as mentioned in the prosecution case is often found to be at variance with the age determined by the expert medical boards in a large number of cases. "At times there are multiple contradictions in age-related documents available with the prosecution. Numerous cases of false implica

More than 2.43 lakh cases under the POCSO Act were pending in fast-track special courts (FTSCs) as on January 31 this year despite the central government's robust policy and financial commitment, according to a research paper published by an NGO. In 2022, the number of such cases that resulted in conviction remained a mere three per cent nationally, it said. The research paper -- 'Justice Awaits: An Analysis of the Efficacy of Justice Delivery Mechanisms in Cases of Child Sexual Abuse in India' - released by India Child Protection Fund (ICPF) said that even if no new cases are added to the list, the country will need at least nine years to clear this backlog. In some states such as Arunachal Pradesh and Bihar, it could take more than 25 years to bring the pending cases to closure. The findings of the paper cast a huge question mark on the efficacy of the country's judicial system, despite the central government's 2019 landmark decision to set up fast-track special courts to provide

The FIR has been filed against Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru of Murugha Mutt in Chitradurga. According to the FIR, the girls were abused for over two years

The 54-page text, titled Praedicate Evanglium or Proclaiming the Gospel, replaces the founding constitution Pastor Bonus that was penned by St. John Paul II in 1988

The ad hoc committee has called for broadening of POSCO Act and mandatory policing on apps to regulate access to child pornography

For the same period, Faridabad saw 543 rape and 337 murder cases being registered, while these figures for Sonipat were 229 and 448, respectively

The analysis comes at a time when there is outrage in the country over recent rape cases involving minors in Kathua and Unnao