What good is the stringent POCSO (or Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act if the police, out of ignorance of law or a lackadaisical approach to performing its duties, fail to invoke it in crucial cases?

This failure on the police's part in dealing with heinous crimes of kidnappings of minor girls has come to light yet again, this time in the mega city of Mumbai. Let alone invoking POCSO, the police seem to have gone out of its way to shield the accused from its provisions.

As the girl in this case happens to be a Dalit Hindu, the Mumbai police have now come under the scanner of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC).

On 14 March, a minor girl went missing from Ghatkopar area. When she did not return all night, her parents approached the Ghatkopar police station the next day to file a first information report (FIR). The police registered it but messed up the case at this very first level.

The police did not add the name of the accused, Akhtar Sheikh, in the FIR despite the girl's mother naming him as a suspect repeatedly. The mother's statement recorded in the FIR simply says that her daughter, aged 17 years, went without her will after being lured by an "unknown person".

The police also did not add the POCSO Act despite the victim being a minor. The girl remained missing for four days.

The girl's mother told Swarajya over the phone, "the police officer who took up my case shouted at me. She said it's because of people like us that they have to run around because we can't take care of our children. She simply ignored Sheikh’s mention."

The girl’s mother, who works as a housemaid, told the name of the officer as sub-inspector Sheetal Kanadkhedkar (the officer is now facing the ire of NCSC as mentioned later in the report).

The girl was recovered on 19 March after which the police sent her to a juvenile home, where she continues to stay till date. The mother said that she is allowed to meet her daughter once in three-four days.

"My daughter has been revealing details slowly. She told me that Akhtar Sheikh first kept her overnight in a dargah and then at a friend's house for three days,” the girl’s mother said.

However, even after the girl was found, the police did not add the accused's name in the FIR.

"When we went to the police station again after her recovery, asking for further action to be taken in the matter, Sheetal accused us of making it a Hindu-Muslim issue. She refused to add his name again," the mother said.

Sheikh was arrested only after 10 days on 28 March, as revealed by Mumbai police in a recent tweet on the matter, and soon got out on bail.

The case did not find any mention in the local media. On 14 April, a Twitter user and activist wrote about it in a series of tweets. He shared a concern expressed by the girl's parents — that the girl would turn 18 next week on 22 April, and if the accused elopes with the girl now, the parents would "lose their daughter permanently".