Mumbai, Aug 22 (IANS): The Bombay High Court on Thursday came down heavily on the Maharashtra Police and the school authorities for taking the Badlapur (Thane) alleged rape of two nursery girls lightly and the lapses in probing the case that has triggered a massive public outcry in the state.

Taking suto motu cognizance of the shocking incidents based on media reportage, a division bench comprising Justice Revati Mohite-Dere and Justice Prithviraj K. Chavan also took note of the inaction by the Adarsh Vidya Prasarak Sanstha (AVPS) for not reporting the crimes.

The judges said that the (two) girls have complained, but many such cases go unreported as “it needs a huge amount of courage to speak about all this”.

“Definitely the police had not played its role the way it ought to be. Had the police been sensitized, this would not have happened,” the judges observed, posting the matter for further hearing on August 27.

Slamming the Badlapur Police’s delay in recording the statements and filing the FIR which discourages people from approaching the police, the court said it was “appalled by the fact that the police has taken no efforts to record the statement of the second victim girl either under Section 161 or Sec. 164”.

The first thing in such cases of minors is the police must register the FIR, but they made the family wait for hours, asking for sensitising the police on how to handle such cases of sexual offences, even as the Advocate-General Birendra Saraf and Chief Public Prosecutor Hiten Venegaonkar said that the police officials responsible for the lapses have been suspended.

“The people shouldn’t lose faith in the police. You should know what the motto of the Maharashtra Police is (Sadarakshanaya Khalanigrahanay), which means to protect the good and restrain the evil. Please remember this. People should not come out on the streets like this to get an FIR lodges,” said the judges strongly.

Saraf informed the court that an SIT headed by IGP Aarti Singh has been formed to probe, the accused (Akshay Shinde, 23), has been arrested and is in police custody till August 24, the girls’ statements have been recorded, and their medical examination has been done and everything is being done speedily.

Perusing the case diary and the FIR, the judges asked if the POCSO had been invoked and whether the girls had undergone counselling for their trauma, to which Saraf said it (POCSO) would be done now but sought time for the status of the counselling of the victims.

The court said (POCSO) should have been done at the earliest and also emphasised the need for counselling of the nursery class victims, aged around 4 and 6.

To a query on why the second victim’s reference was missing in the FIR and the delay in recording her statement, Saraf said he did not want to make any casual submissions but the SIT would review everything and apprise by Monday.

“How can the police take it so lightly,” observed the court, asking the state to take action against the AVPS authorities for not reporting the crime and seeking an explanation for the delay in recording the second victim’s statement, noting that even the girl’s father’s statement was recorded only today after the high court initiated the suo motu case hearing.

Justice Mohite-Dere and Justice Chavan have directed that all the case files and papers should be submitted to the court and posted the matter for the next hearing on Tuesday (August 27), said Venegaonkar.

It may be recalled that two nursery school girls were allegedly raped by Akshay Shinde, a contractual sweeper in the AVPS school toilet on August 12-13, the stunned parents informed the school authorities the next day, and the parents finally managed to lodge the FIR only on August 16.

A day later (August 17), the prime suspect Shinde was arrested and is currently in extended police custody till August 24.

The double-rape incidents sparked massive public furore with protests and a railway blockade in Badlapur on Tuesday, culminating with police baton-charge and tear gas shells to quell the violent protestors.

The incident has also rocked the state political boat with the Assembly elections around the corner, with the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi brutally targetting the MahaYuti government for its series of failures and a collapse of the law-and-order situation in the state.

A couple of days ago, the case had come up before a bench of Justice Bharti H. Dangre and Justice Manjusha A. Deshpande, and on this day was heard by Justice Mohite-Dere and Justice Chavan, according to Venegaonkar.