Bhubaneswar: In a scathing indictment of local police work that narrowly missed derailing a sensitive trial, a Fast Track Special Court (POCSO) here has ruled that the negligence of an investigating officer cannot be allowed to subvert justice. Holding that trustworthy oral testimonies and severe medical trauma outweigh severe procedural lapses, the court sentenced a 24-year-old man, Kanha @ Santosh Khuntia, to 30 years of rigorous imprisonment for the aggravated penetrative sexual assault of a toddler.

The landmark judgment, delivered by Ad hoc Additional Sessions Judge Shri S.K. Sahoo in the case verbatim titled “state-of-odisha-v-kanha-santosh-khuntia-681961.pdf”, highlights a growing judicial trend where courts refuse to let shoddy police investigations become an escape hatch for perpetrators of heinous crimes.

A Litany of Police Lapses

The defense mounted a fierce challenge against the prosecution, arguing that the police had failed to bring forward any independent eyewitnesses, missed a definitive forensic trail, and failed to produce a Chemical Examination Report from the State Forensic Science Laboratory (SFSL).

The court’s detailed examination of the case record revealed a series of serious investigative blunders by the Airfield Police Station's initial Investigating Officer (I.O.):

• Missing Blood-Stained Attire: Family members testified they caught the accused at the crime scene wearing a blood-soaked gamuchha and banian. Yet, the police completely failed to search for or seize these critical pieces of clothing.
• Illogical Seizures: When the accused was arrested two days after the incident, the I.O. seized the sports shorts and shirt he was wearing at the police station. The court remarked that it was entirely improbable the accused would be roaming around in the same clothes forty-eight hours after committing the crime, rendering the lack of bloodstains on them meaningless.
• Forensic Clues Abandoned: A forensic team visiting the spot recovered a blood-stained pair of blue jeans. The I.O., however, failed to conduct any follow-up investigation into who the clothing belonged to or how it linked back to the crime.
• Trial Without Forensic Reports: The police rushed the case to trial and submitted a charge sheet without ever securing the definitive Chemical Examination Report from the SFSL.

'Separating Grain from Chaff'

Directly addressing the slipshod paperwork, Judge Sahoo noted in his judgment that the I.O. "has not properly investigated the case." However, the court emphasized that the accused could not take advantage of a poorly executed investigation if the core evidence remained unshakable.

Invoking settled legal jurisprudence, the court took up the duty to "separate the grain from the chaff." It found the immediate, raw circumstantial accounts given by the child's mother and grandfather to be entirely consistent, credible, and trustworthy.

Furthermore, the legal shield turned against the accused. Under Sections 29 and 30 of the POCSO Act, the law mandates a "reverse burden of proof," forcing an accused to prove their innocence once the basic facts of an assault are established. The court ruled that the defense had completely failed to discharge this heavy legal burden.

Severe Punishment and Compensation

Coupled with the medical officer’s graphic findings of violent, forcible trauma inflicted upon the two-year-and-eight-month-old child, the court found the chain of circumstantial evidence complete.

The court convicted the accused under Section 6 of the POCSO Act alongside Sections 363 (kidnapping), 342 (wrongful confinement), and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the IPC. He was handed a 30-year prison term, a fine, and the court directed the District Legal Services Authority to swiftly disburse Rs5,00,000 in victim compensation to help alleviate the deep physical and mental trauma endured by the toddler.