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JAIPUR: A Pocso court in Jhunjhunu on Tuesday convicted a 45-year-old woman and sentenced her to one month’s simple imprisonment for turning hostile after filing a false case of gang-rape of her ‘minor’ daughter by three people. Invoking IPC Section 193 (punishment for false evidence), the court also slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on her.

“It appears that these people use legal proceedings as tools and later turn hostile in greed… In case of minor girls, whether sex is consensual or without consent, the punishment is the same… In this particular case, since the mother, who took a U-turn, failed to give a valid reason, she must face punishment,” Pocso court special judge Sukesh Kumar Jain remarked in his order.

In 2017, the woman initially complained to police that one Maniram had abducted and raped her minor daughter. “However, the girl later told the magistrate that two other people, Nekiram and Pradeep Kajla, too had raped her. Thus, police were ordered to take action against all the three accused,” public prosecutor Lokendra Singh Shekhawat told TOI over phone from Jhunjhunu on Tuesday.

Police arrested the three under relevant sections of Pocso (prevention of children from sexual offences) Act and filed a charge sheet in the case. Then came a twist in the tale.

“The woman turned hostile and maintained in the court that her girl was never abducted and raped. She said that the girl had gone to her aunt without informing the parents. What was more shocking was that she claimed her daughter was not a minor when the FIR was lodged in 2017. She maintained that she was illiterate and unaware of the contents of the FIR,” Shekhawat added.

As the woman turned hostile, the court acquitted all the three accused on November 11 this year. The public prosecutor then submitted an application in the court to initiate action against the woman under IPC Section 193.

After the application was given, judge Jain put the woman on notice and, on Tuesday, convicted her for giving false evidence. “It is evident that the mother of the girl was clear on what she was doing in the court initially. But later, it appears that she reached an out-of-court settlement with the accused and turned hostile,” the judge said.

(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)

