Mumbai: A special POCSO court on Monday took cognisance of the chargesheet filed by the Bandra police in the Otters club child sex assault case. As per the document submitted on April 19, the arrested club staffer – Vinod Kumar alias Anil Yadav, 41 – could be seen groping the seven-year-old boy in the CCTV footage. It also includes the statements of the waiters who are eyewitnesses.
However, the police has yet not ascertained the role of the club office-bearers, who have been accused of not reporting the incident to the police immediately.
“In the CCTV footage, the arrested accused is seen touching the genitals of the victim, while talking to him. Also, his facial expressions seem to be obscene,” read the chargesheet. The police further said the other waiters were seen laughing at the time of the incident and the accused also repeated his act to show it to his peers.
On September 29 last year, the complainant, a club member, asked his son to go to the kitchen and place his order. Later, the boy came crying and complained that a kitchen worker sexually assaulted him. The father claimed that he was prevented by the club's office-bearers from approaching the police.
In his petition filed before the Bombay High Court, he claimed that he was “arm-twisted and threatened” by the club's president, and disciplinary and managing committees not to report the issue under the pretext of referring the matter to the Prevention of Sexual Harassment Committee. However, the step could not be taken if the sex assault victim is a child, the petition pointed out.
The chargesheet said that further investigation is required to probe the allegations made by the complainant against the club's office-bearers. If sufficient evidence is gathered against the accused for not letting the father approach the cops, a supplementary chargesheet would be filed, the police said.
