Recently, sessions court in Panvel denied pre-arrest bail to woman booked under sections of the POCSO Act for “sexually harassing” her children by watching porn and indulging in sexual acts with her lover while the minors were around.

Further, the Police charged the woman and her lover for locking the children – a 10-year-old son and a 6-year-old daughter - in the bathroom, threatening them not to talk to anyone about the lover’s presence in their house in the absence of their father.

The husband, a chief engineer on a commercial ship, told the police that he was required to be on sea for almost six months every year. He alleged that his wife had an affair with another man who claimed to be a social media influencer and came to know of the affair when he returned home in February last year.

In his complaint, the husband said that after he noticed that his wife was often speaking to an unknown man on the phone, he checked and found his wife’s photographs with the caller in her phone. After he raked up the issue with the woman’s family, she lodged cases of dowry harassment against him in March 2022.

The husband was also arrested by the police on the complaint of his wife. Later, the husband claimed that when he came out on bail, on March 24 he took his children in confidence and enquired with them. He said his son told him that his wife’s boyfriend had shifted to their house in his absence, and he had threatened to kill them if they spoke about his presence in the house and his affair with their mother to anyone.

It was claimed by the children that they were confined in the bathroom with lights off and in the car boot while their mother and her boyfriend would make videos and reels to post on social media.

Based on these allegations the mother and her boyfriend were booked for illegally confining the children and also under section 75 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act and the children were referred to the child welfare committee.

Before the committee, the children revealed that their mother would often watch porn on mobile and indulge in sexual acts with her boyfriend while their kids were around in the house. After this revelation, the police added the charges of sexual harassment under relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 against the woman and her lover.

“The offence is very serious, as it is against children. Cognisance is taken of the offence and not of the offender and only on the ground that applicant/accused being a mother of the children, it cannot be presumed that she may not commit such offence.”

The court rejected her plea, “considering the nature of the offence, facts of the case and the material brought by the police on record.”