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The Bombay High Court on Thursday pulled up Maharashtra Police over the delay in registering an FIR in the sexual assault case of two kindergarten students in Badlapur and directed the government to take action against the school authorities for not reporting the crime.
The court also sought an explanation from the police for the delay in recording the second victim's statement.
"Have you made any endeavour to record statement of the second child? What steps have been taken? Tell us why this delay in recording the statement of the second child. Don't understand how the police take it so lightly," a division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj Chavan said.
"Is it necessary that people protest, and you take up action only after public outcry?" the court said.
The two girls, aged three and four, were sexually assaulted at a school in Maharashtra's Badlapur by a cleaning staffer between August 12-13. The accused, Akshay Shinde, was arrested by the police on August 17.
The incident triggered massive outrage amid allegations that the parents of the girls were made to wait for 12 hours at Badlapur police station before taking their complaints.
On Tuesday, thousands of people stopped local trains at Badlapur railway station and also ransacked the school where two girls were sexually abused.
The High Court said it would not hesitate to take action against the police if it was found that there was dereliction of duty. The court said such lapses discourage people from coming to the police.
"The first thing in such cases of minors is that the police must have registered an FIR. But they made the family wait for hours," the court said.
To this, the government counsel said it had suspended three police officers and constituted an SIT to probe the incident.
"The police have not played their role. Have the police been sensitised? The police should have recorded the (FIR) immediately. People should not come out on the streets like this to get an FIR lodged," the High Court said.
The court also asked whether provisions of the POCSO Act had been invoked against the school authorities. To this, the government counsel said it would be done now. The court posted the matter for hearing on Tuesday.
