CLOSING ESCAPE ROUTES :Don’t let Brits acquitted of child abuse flee: SC to cops

The Supreme Court on Monday asked Mumbai police to ensure that the two Britons along with their Indian accomplice, acquitted by the Bombay high court in a case of alleged sexual abuse of boys in shelter homes, do not flee India as had happened in a similar case involving a Swiss couple.

This additional measure was ordered by a bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam despite it having already directed the police not to give back the passports to the acquitted accused Allan John Waters and Duncan Grant.

Joining senior advocate Fali Nariman, who argued for petitioner NGO ‘Childline India Foundation’, Maharashtra’s counsel Ravindra Adsure expressed apprehension that mere denial of passport to the acquitted accused was no guarantee against their fleeing the country, as had happened earlier in a similar case.

The bench, while asking the police to ensure that the accused do not flee the country, directed Waters and Grant to mark their appearance before the SHO of Colaba police station in Mumbai twice every month.

Nariman said the act of the accused, who were in charge of the child shelter home, was serious since they abused the very children whom they were supposed to take care of. ‘‘Such relationship between consenting adults is a different thing, but people in supervisory position could not be allowed to go scot-free for their act on the ground that it was an act under consent,’’ he said faulting the HC judgment.

The NGO had stated that the trial court had on March 18, 2005, convicted the accused in the child abuse case for allegedly sexually assaulting the minors at the ‘Anchorage’ shelter home set up by Grant, who had surrendered in June 2005.
Source:-The Times of India Delhi 20 January 2009 2008 P.11
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