A day after the alleged sexual assault of a 11-year-old girl came to light in the Chennai, the Madras High Court has directed the District Legal Services Authority to provide counselling to the survivor through the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).
According to a report in The New Indian Express, the first Bench of Justice Indira Banerjee and PT Asha convenedon Wednesday and directed that the child be given counselling within 24 hours.
The High Court’s directive came after AP Suriyaprakasam, an advocate, and A Narayanan, an activist, made mention before her of the sexual assault cases.
A Narayanan of Change India brought to the attention of the court that the police had failed to inform the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) of the incident as is mandated by law.
Speaking to TNM earlier, Sheila Charles Mohan, a member of the CWC had said, "The police didn't even inform the Child Welfare Committee despite such a brutal crime taking place in the city. The child needs immediate counselling after such an incident. But the bigger issue here is that this crime cannot be isolated. If this one child has admitted to what happened, imagine how many more will be there silently suffering?"
On Tuesday, Chennai woke up to the news that a 11-year-old child had been sexually assaulted by multiple men at a gated community in the Ayanavaram area. Seventeen alleged perpetrators ranging from a 66-year-old liftman to many security guards in their twenties were arrested by the All Women’s Police station in the locality on Monday.
A day later, a Russian woman tourist was allegedly sexually assaulted in a service apartment in Tiruvannamalai. The police have detained six persons in connection with the crime.
According to a report in the Times of India, advocate Suryaprakasam sought the court’s intervention to initiate suo motu proceedings in both cases. However, the Justices observed that a police investigation was ongoing and that the Court need not take suo moto notice.