Mira Bhayandar: In a horrifying incident a 30-year-old man has been arrested by the crime detection unit of the Navghar police on alleged charges of having unnatural sex and sodomy with an eleven-year-old boy in Bhayandar.
The accused (name withheld to protect the identity of the victim) who was known to the boy lured him to a friend’s apartment and committed the crime on 14, August. An offence under section 351(2) of the IPC for use of criminal force and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (PoCSO) Act-2012 was registered against the accused who had gone absconding.
On the virtue of mobile surveillance and call data records (CDR), the crime detection unit arrested the accused on Thursday. Further investigations were on. Ironically, the Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS)-2023 which replaced the Indian Penal Code (IPC) excludes penal provisions for the offences of unnatural sex and sodomy.
In response to a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the absence of a legal remedy for victims of such offences, the Delhi High Court on 13, August 2024 asked the central government to make its stand clear on the exclusion of penal provisions for the offences of unnatural sex and sodomy from the BNS.
The court granted time to the centre’s counsel to seek instructions on the issue and listed the matter for August 28. The BNS which came into force from July 1, 2024 is devoid of any provision equivalent to section 377 (unnatural offences) of the IPC. Unnatural sexual acts are held to be penetrative penile–non-vaginal sexual acts, that is penile–oral, penile–anal sex and sexual acts between human beings.
