‘Social media stalking case cannot rest on surmise and conjecture’
Times of India | 21 April 2025
123 Kolkata: Allegations against any person for stalking and sexually harassing minor girls on social media cannot be based on "surmise and conjecture," a city POCSO court held on April 16, acquitting a person who allegedly stalked a minor on Facebook – his school junior – by morphing her face over nude photographs to avenge her rejection.
The acquittal came eight years after the FIR was lodged by the victim's mother, after the POCSO court found that the Kolkata Police cyber cell probe failed to establish it was the accused who abused the girl on social media. The police chargesheet mentioned that Facebook provided the login IPs on the offensive posts made. Tata Teleservices also provided police with the customer details of the telephone number used to upload the photographs and posts. The person who owned the cellphone was also questioned by police, but the police chargesheet suddenly went mute on why the person – against whom the victim and her mother levelled the allegations – was suddenly implicated and set up for trial.
The special POCSO judge, Indrila Mukhopadhyay Mitra, said, "The Investigating Officers in fact could not fix who is the actual offender in this case. The complainant out of suspicion told the name of the accused before this Court but in the FIR she did not mention the name of the accused." The judge also said, "I am unable to keep reliance upon the evidence of the victim girl regarding the identification of the accused. It is true that before Ld. Magistrate, the victim girl gave the allegation against this accused but the entire allegation is only based on surmise and conjecture. Therefore, the identification of the accused by the victim girl is suffering from trustworthiness and it is doubtful."
The eight-year-old case began when the victim – who was a minor in 2017 – received a Facebook friendship request from an unknown (which later turned out to be fake) account. Browsing it, the girl saw several of her images morphed over nude photos. When she asked the social media handle to delete it, she was asked to recharge a certain cell phone number. While doing so, she felt she knew the person to be the school senior she spurned. This person was also her elder brother's friend and went to her home too in the past. He also once wrote her a love letter in school. Her parents then told the school about it, which the school "amicably resolved" with the accused tendering his apology, promising never to do it again. These were elaborately told during the trial, but police failed to back it up with evidence. The judge said, "I also find that the FIR has not been proved in evidence by the prosecution. The FIR is the base of the criminal case and unless it is proved in evidence, the allegations do not properly stand."
The judge also mentioned in her judgement that POCSO cases are slightly different from other penal charges because Section 29 of the POCSO Act makes it clear that "the presumption of guilt" is on the accused. In this case, the judge held, "It cannot be stated that the presumption under Section 29 of the POCSO Act is absolute and it would come into operation only when the prosecution is able to establish the facts that would form the foundation for the presumption under Section 29 of the POCSO Act to operate." MSID:: 120455832 413 |
EOM
The eight year long trial
Date of Offence -- On and before 30/03/2016
Date of FIR -- 06/04/2017
Date of Charge-sheet -- 11/02/2019
Date of Framing Charges -- 14/03/2019 and 19/03/2025
Date of commencement of Evidence -- 10/04/2019
Date on which Judgment is reserved -- 10/04/2025
Date of the Judgment -- 16/04/2025
Penal charges slapped
Cyber Case No.-44 dated 06/04/2017 under sections 354A/354D/465/468/469/471/507/509 of the Indian Penal Code, under sections 13C/14 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 and under section 67 of the Information Technology Act 2000
Maximum charges. 354D IPC (stalking) and the POCSO charges if proven could have led to 5 years in prison.