In a shocking turn of events, a Mumbai based 13-years-old boy studying in Std. VIII has allegedly committed suicide. It is alleged that he was repeatedly raped by four men. When he couldn’t bear it anymore, he swallowed rat poison to commit suicide. He was rushed to the Sion hospital, Mumbai on 12th July. Later on 20th July, he was shifted to the intensive care unit of the KEM hospital, Mumbai. The rat poison led to liver failure which required a transplant to save his life. His name was registered at the top of Zonal Transplant Co-ordination Committee (ZTCC) list seeking an emergency organ transplant. Unfortunately, they could not find a liver matching his blood type. There he sadly passed away due to multiple organ failures.
It has also come to the light that his 10-years-old friend was also going through the similar ordeal and was taken the trauma care centre in Jogeshwari Hospital due to dehydration. After awhile he was sent home. As his condition worsened, he was taken back to the hospital again. This time he died on his way to the hospital. His parents refused to do post-mortem and police complaint.They even denied any kind of assault.
When the 13-years-old boy regained consciousness for some time at KEM Hospital on July 20, told his parents that he had been repeatedly raped since 6th June. He further told that the four men threatened him that if he opens his mouth then they will kill his family. According to forensic experts, the boy was sexually assaulted several times and there are signs of physical abuse.
A case is registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). The police have interrogated many children from the locality and got many descriptions of the accused. Also, the other boy’s body has been exhumed to do a post-mortem, though police say that it will be difficult to find any conclusive report now as the body has decomposed quite a bit.
According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, 14,913 cases were registered under POCSO in 2015, a steep rise from 8,904 cases in 2014. There were only 1,072 convictions. According to a report by The Indian Express, 60 percent of the victims in cases registered under Section 377 are children.
(Source: Better India)
This is a very disturbing and shocking trend in our society lately where children are becoming an increasing target of sexual abuse. What is more disturbing is that in most of the cases even parents are not willing to come open about the issue and fight which may be due to societal pressure and pressure from alleged culprits.
We, NGOs and government should work in a holistic way to bring awareness about these issues in the public at large and show them the possible way of getting justice.