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Saturday, February 21, 2026
TopicPOCSO

Topic: POCSO

Goa minister acquitted in POCSO case. Court cites victim ‘somersault’, prosecution failure to prove age

Special court acquitted cabinet minister Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monserrate after complainant retracted initial testimony and said complaints she had filed were a 'figment of imagination'.

Bhajanpura gangrape: 6-yr-old victim called them ‘bhaiya’, minors lured her with a ‘fake Rs 10 note’

The gangrape took place 18 January, and it came to the family’s notice when the mother saw her daughter drenched in blood.

‘Golden lining to dark cloud’: In 2025, disposal rate of POCSO cases was over 100% in 24 states

Disposal rate in 2025 reached 109 percent, meaning the courts cleared backlog of previous years. However, conviction rate has been reducing since 2019. System also struggling with delays.

Flagging ‘botched’ probe that cost POCSO accused 13 yrs in jail, SC lays down norms for criminal trials

Supreme Court bench sets aside conviction, says when trials 'become mechanical exercises divorced from quest for truth', outcome risks becoming 'instrument of unintended cruelty'.

Refusing to junk POCSO case, how Delhi HC rejected exceptions for ‘near-majority consensual relations’

At a time when courts are carving out exceptions on humanitarian grounds for 'consensual' relations between near-adult juveniles, Delhi HC has stuck to stricter interpretation of POCSO Act.

In life term to 15-yr-old’s rapist father, J&K court’s question to society—’will sentencing alone work?’

Sessions court relied on Supreme Court ruling in Bhanei Prasad Raju vs State of Himachal Pradesh case, emphasising the irreparable nature of breach of trust in 'incestuous cases'.

SC rap to YouTuber for violating POCSO Act privacy norms & what law says on protection of identity

Top court sought apology from YouTuber Suraj Palakaran, hearing his plea for quashing of criminal proceedings for disclosing identity of a child involved in POCSO case in a video.

DNA tests by botanist, a ‘confession’ & a missing witness—2 acquitted by SC in minor’s rape-murder

The Supreme Court has set aside the death penalty of the main accused, and the jail sentence of another suspect in the 2014 POCSO case.

‘How can you criminalise love?’ SC backs TN circular against hasty POCSO arrests in ‘romantic cases’

New Delhi: “How can you criminalise love?” asked the Supreme Court Tuesday, as it sought to back the Tamil Nadu government’s more than two-year-old...

Man who dressed up as baba to ‘give Shiva’s blessings’ detained in Op Kalanemi, found to be POCSO accused

Deepak Kumar Saini also has other cases lodged against him including harassment and dowry, according to Haridwar Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Pramendra Dobhal.

On Camera

Youth Congress, your foolish protest helped the Modi govt climb out of the AI summit hole

In tactical terms, the shirtless protest was worse than a self-goal. Suddenly, the fiascos of the AI Summit were forgotten, and the Youth Congress’s disruption became the issue.

In the West, there’s anxiety. In India, optimism—Rishi Sunak says India poised to be leader in AI

On Wednesday, the former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was speaking in New Delhi at a Carnegie & Observer Research Foundation event on AI.

MoD, IAF agree on some exemptions to HAL for Tejas Mk1A, but no compromise on ‘must-have’ capabilities

IAF is fine with accepting the aircraft with 'must-haves', even if some other steps remain pending, which may take at least another year, it is learnt.

No country is ever fully sovereign. Cold War era taught India its real meaning

India’s fraught neighbourhood places multiple constraints on its strategic choices. It leaves no time to take a deep breath, lean back and reset.