It is on the rise. We
increasingly see gay dating spaces and also social networking sites being
plagued with profile updates that state that they look for young boys. It is
also important for people to know that insanity prevails in every group and
every sexuality. And just as the
complete heterosexual community is not called promoting child trafficking
because girls get abused and trafficked into prostitution (in larger numbers),
we cannot hold the whole homosexual community responsible. In fact, as a gay
person, I am more focused on child sexual abuse as an issue. And would stand up
against child sexual abuse offenders – irrespective of what sexuality they subscribe to. Well, web patrolling is still at a nascent
stage in India. the good news is that the police in Bombay does respond and
assist you in every way possible. Yes, there are some trolls in the police, but
that doesn't take away from the many who do their job very well. The truth is
that it does take a lot of time for them to respond, and if it is an urgent
case that needs immediate attention, the citizen needs to raise an appropriate
alarm so that they could act more promptly.
I recently had a
breakthrough in a child sexual abuse case. Of course the case took many follow
ups and visits to police stations in distant corners of Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.
In May 2013, someone informed me about a status update on facebook that boasted
about having sex with a 15 year old boy. The profile was of someone who went by the name of Ajay Ahuja. If this
status update was not disgusting enough, the comments that requested the child
to be passed on to them after use, added to the repugnance. I quickly recorded the complete conversation
on my blog here with an open letter to the commissioner of police, Bombay. I
also posted a copy of the letter to the cyber cell Mumbai through the online
mode and the email ids mentioned here cybercellmumbai.gov.in/ I got a reference number from them. After I had captured the post details on my
profile. I highlighted this disgusting post on facebook in my profile, and
urged people to complain and also report the post. The post was pulled down and
my appeal to report this post was widely read by a lot of my friends and also
shared. I asked the Cyber cell of Mumbai
at bandra to update me about the status of the case. I was asked to personally
visit the Navi Mumbai Cyber cell and register a case there, since I am a navi Mumbai
resident. I thought that it was absurd, because I am a complainant and I should
be allowed to register the complaint anywhere, more so, because it was a cyber
complaint. But I chose to not rant about the system but go personally for a
human interface to the Navi Mumbai cyber cell at the Police Commissioners
office in Belapur. The police knew about the laws of the land but had their own
understanding and interpretation. The positive thing about the Bombay and Navi
Mumbai police is that they are willing to listen to a counter view and correct
their thoughts accordingly. At first, I had to meet their prejudices, they saw
the case from the point of view of homosexuality. Their impression was that
homosexuals have sex with minors. Though I had been to the police station to
register a case of child trafficking/ child sexual abuse/ cyber crime, I ended
up finding myself in a situation where I was debunking their myths and
enlightening them with information about homosexuality. I did so
by coming out to the poilice about my sexuality, and told them that there are
abusers and protectors in every community. I asked them to tell me how many cases
of men abusing girl children they hear of. I then asked them how they would
feel if I branded the whole community as rapists and child molesters because some
are so. I made it more personal by asking them if they felt all heterosexuals
were abusers, wouldn’t that generalization include them as well, as they are
openly heterosexual. I had a three hour long conversation with the woman police
officer there and explained the difference between homosexuality and heterosexuality
and transgenders and how any one could be a child protector and anyone could be
a child molester. The police took my complaint and told me that they will
investigate the matter thoroughly.
I followed
up with the police for a while and then got embroiled in other issues of counseling
that needed my immediate attention, that
this took a back burner. 8 months later, on 15 December 2013, I received a call from the
police station of the jurisdiction of my residence in Navi Mumbai. The Kamote police
station again had the same set of prejuidices about the Gay community. I had to
spend around the same amount of time explaining that gays are not equal to
child molesters. But human depravity is universal and cuts across all genders
and sexualities. Again, as a serial coming-out person, I came out to them. They
gave me a compassionate ear, they also told me that they have found a residential
address to the IP address. They also had finer details of the person at the IP
address , like his name and the number. I thought that the next process would
be to just call the number and nab the person. But then came a rude shock. The
police officer told me that the case
needs to be transferred to the Bangur Nagar police station, which is in Malad,
more than 50 KMs away. When I asked them why would they not take cognizance of
the case they pointed at a comment by the culprit Ajay Ahuja in the comments
section of his facebook update in which he said that he lived in Bangur Nagar.
I found it absurd and was immensely frustrated. I wondered how difficult it
would be for someone to even follow up on an online complaint if you are thrown
from one police station to the other. I was annoyed, but refused to lose hope. I
had already spent 8 months following up, I had made a habit of waiting for
justice. Through the feeling of annoyance loomed over me, I was pretty sanguine
about the fact that the case was moving forward. After this, I interacted the kamote police
station a few times for other cases and checked with them about this particular
case. Their answer was that I will hear from the Bangur Nagar police station.
On 20
February 2014, I received a call from Police Sub Inspector Deokhale from Bangur
Nagar police station. The inspector called me over to the police station to
understand what the case was and how he could help. I didn’t find time until 21
March 2014 to visit the police station which was 2 hours away by road from my
office, given the traffic in the western line. PSI Deokhale was most
compassionate. He assured me of complete cooperation and thanked me for taking
up the case. He explained to me that the best thing would be to pursue the case
from my jurisdiction because in case of follow ups and visits to the courts it
would be more convenient, but having said that, he also assured me that he
would take cognizance of the case if I intended to pursue it further. He and I
had a long chat where I continued the rigmarole that I followed in the
preceeding police stations. This one was different. He patiently wrote my
complaint and had a discussion with me about the possible outcomes of the case.
He said that he would file a case under the IT acts and then down the line, take it up for further investigation under
POCSO (protection of children from sexual offences act 2012) as the investigation
proceeds. He was amazed at the perseverance and was also shocked that I had to
go through so many police stations to pursue the case. He gave me a case number and told me that he
would call me back in a week to update me on the status of the case. He
instantly shared his personal number with me. Now all that needs to be done is
that the culprit needs to be called to the police station and visit the court
to explain his stance. He may go off the trap as in such cases there needs to
be a victim present. And to trace a victim in this case would be difficult.
This could also have been a case of simple chest-thumping about having sex
whereas nothing really could have happened. The fact, but lies that they would
have to go through the embarrassment of cops visiting the house to summon them
and a visit to court to explain the stance is inevitable.
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the case number. |
I am
immensely thankful to Madhavi
Rajadhyaksha for taking this up not as a personal cause and
not just merely a media interest story and dipesh tank for connecting me to
her. Aamir, Svati, Satyajit, Advait, Vidhi, Prerna, Rahul , Lancy , Chandni,
Subuhi – the police has been raving
about the episode on police reforms in Satyamev
Jayate. Mr. Deokhale from Bangur Nagar police station and others there asked me
to thank you all for such a sensitive portrayal. They were very happy when they
realized that I was a visible as a part of the family in Season 1.
I hope
this post serves as a wake up call for dating sites which openly advertise
about sex with minors. People making such requests could be nabbed and pushed
behind bars. I will ensure that such cases are pursued till the logical end,
even if it takes months or years to bring the culprit to book. If there needs
to be a case registered against the dating site, shall look at that too, that is only if the administrators of the dating site don’t
take action by disallowing/ banning posts that solicit sex with minors.
We cant
stop child sexual abuse completely. But when we see something going awry, we
could choose to do something about it. At least something more than simply
intellectually masturbating about the issue, our first reaction should be to
inform the police. Not be resigned about the issue and say “kuch nahi hoyega
india ka”…. Or blame NGOs for it by saying “what is the use of so many NGOs
when they cant keep a check on this”… let me ask you, if you are so damn
concerned and your heart bleeds on seeing something like this happen – why don’t
you fucking do something about it as a reflex action.
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