Opinion A nightmare twice over

In this country,a mere fraction of child sexual abuse incidents are reported to the police. This one belongs to that even rarer category where the accused is the father and the accuser is the mother. The high-profile case has come up at a time when India is in the final stages of passing its first ever law,to protect children from sexual predators,the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Bill,2012. Currently,India has no law to protect those under 18 from paedophiles in the home or outside. Even the few child abuse cases that are reported are tried in adult courts with the application of adult laws,says Pinki Virani, author of a book on child sexual abuse in India.

The outcome of this case could be that even those Indians summoning the courage to walk into a police station with a complaint would now baulk at the idea,seeing how the Mazurier case is unfolding.

The case is particularly complicated legally. The father is a Frenchman,the mother an Indian passport holder,and their three children,including the victim,are all French nationals. The police took their time arresting Pascal Mazurier,saying they had to first ascertain that the official did not have diplomatic immunity. They finally charged him with rape under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code,and he has been sent to judicial custody. Mazurier has denied the charges.

Suja Jones Mazurier,an educated mother of three,said she was so distraught by what she termed was callous,harsh treatment at the hands of the police that she immediately petitioned Bangalore’s police chief to change the investigating officer (IO) on the case. In her complaint,Jones Mazurier listed police officials’ insensitivities.

As television channels and newspapers ransacked the shocking particulars of the case as it progressed, Jones Mazurier’s complaint contained stomach-churning details. If a high-profile accuser under the watchful media eye can be meted such shabby police treatment,her lawyer Geetha Menon asked,“What chance would the average citizen have against the system?”

When she came to lodge the initial police complaint the mother was prepared,having garnered prior support from medical specialists and a child welfare NGO. They accompanied her on her first visit to the police station. On finding out from the helper that the daughter had again been assaulted,she immediately took the child to a recently constituted Child Response Unit at the well-known Baptist Hospital.

There,experts trained to detect and examine child abuse cases confirmed the rape of her child but refused to hand over the report as it was deemed a “medico-legal” case. She went straight from there to the police station to register a complaint,she said.

Her ordeal with the police in subsequent days has compounded her nightmare,Jones Mazurier repeatedly said. In her complaint to the city police chief,she said his subordinates’ questioning made her feel like she was the perpetrator rather than the victim’s mother.

Jones Mazurier recounted some of his subordinates’ questions: Were you sexually abused as a child? Do you hate France? Do you hate your mother-in-law? Where did you and your husband meet? How long did you know your husband before you were married? Did your parents know about your pre-marital relationship? If you lied to your parents about that,what proof that you are not lying now?

The questions were completely irrelevant and as the mother of an abused child,Jones Mazurier said she was left devastated. Officers,meanwhile,held the view that such questioning was “routine”. The victim,her daughter who was not even four years old,was even more traumatised,Jones Mazurier said. The physical examination of the child was in the labour room of the government-run Bowring Hospital. In the next bed was a woman in full-blown labour. “There was blood everywhere on the floor. My daughter was screaming and I was crying,” she recounted.

Five days after the police complaint,the Bangalore police arrested Mazurier. In the days that followed,a new IO was posted on the case. Jones Mazurier said she wanted justice for her child and was “putting up a difficult fight despite so many challenges”. After seeing her story as it played out in the media,other victims’ families may put off approaching the authorities altogether. The unintended consequences would make it all the more tragic.

saritha.rai@expressindia.com