Semen To Semman: How Typo Error Acquitted Man Accused Of Child Molestation

POSCO Accused Acquittal: In a child sexual abuse case of a two-year-old, a typist made an error when the word "semen" was written as "semman". The latter word which means red soil colour was a defect noticed in this case. The defence took advantage of the typo to argue that no semen was found on the victim or her garments.

The error worked in favour of the POSCO accused in the trial court, who also misinterpreted and attributed a wrong meaning, said the Madras High Court.

The incident took place in 2017 when a mother went out to buy food and left her two-year-old girl with a neighbour. Later, when she returned she found the child weeping and she complained that the neighbour had kissed her on her private parts.

As per the prosecution, the mother then removed her undergarments and found a white coloured, semen-like liquid on the child's vaginal region. She made a phone call to her husband who was out of the station at that time who suggested she inform other neighbours. After two days, the child was taken to the hospital and the doctor recorded the complaint of sexual assault, following which the police registered a case.

The following year, a trial court acquitted the POSCO accused on the basis of lack of medical evidence supporting the allegations of sexual assault. It stated that the presumption under Section 29 of the POCSO Act cannot be invoked and that there was no satisfactory explanation for the delay in lodging a complaint.

According to Bar and Bench, the High Court has now noted that the victim's mother had clearly stated that "semen" was seen on the child's private part in her complaint to the police.

The judge said that the child’s mother was an illiterate who wouldn’t know what to do in such a case. Since the incident took place in a village, the mother wouldn’t rush to the hospital.

"... the culprits are escaping for technical reason(s) and unfortunately Investigation Wing also not upto the standard and due to either defect in investigation or fault in the investigation, most of the cases, the culprits are escaping,” the court said.

Justice Velmurugan observed that she had meant to state "semen" and not "semman" as wrongly recorded by the typist, and concluded, "An illiterate lady, she did not state as “semen”, it is the person, who written the complaint has mentioned as a white colour liquid-like semen from the private part of the victim child, for which, she cannot be faulted...the Typist typed as “semman” instead of semen.”

The court also found that the accused had not rebutted the presumption drawn under Section 29 of the POCSO Act.

“...the mere defect in investigation is not fatal to the case of the prosecution and the second respondent / accused cannot be acquitted on the sole ground of defective investigation," the Court added.

Eventually, the High Court overturned the acquittal of the accused and directed him to appear before the Court on the question of sentencing.