Social welfare department to recover Rs 1 lakh compensation from girl as court rejects sexual harassment allegations

Ahmedabad: A POCSO court of Ahmedabad City Civil and Sessions Court has ordered the social welfare department to recover Rs 1 lakh from a minor girl who had leveled allegations of sexual harassment against a security guard of a parking lot of a building in the city.

POCSO judge, S C Shettty, while issuing the order said that it is clear from the CCTV footage that the girl was lying in her complaint and asked the social welfare department to recover the amount of Rs 1 lakh which had been awarded to her as interim compensation under POCSO.

The judge has also acquitted the security guard, Pankaj Trivedi (61), of the charges of sexual harassment, POCSO allegations and of committing atrocities against a member of the SC/ST community. The judge has also allowed the security guard, Trivedi, to seek legal recourse against the girl for leveling false allegations against him.

A school girl in 2019 had lodged a complaint at the Maninagar police station against Trivedi, who works as the security guard of the parking lot of a building where she used to go for tuitions.

The special judge, Shetty, ruled that the girl was lying in her complaint on the basis of statements of 11 witnesses in the court, analysis of the CCTV footage from the spot and other documentary evidences that were available to the court.

Among other things that went against the girl, the court prominently considered that the girl may have leveled the false allegations of sexual harassment to hide the fact that she used to bunk her classes very often in order to meet her boyfriend. DeshGujarat