Pune police register child abuse case nearly after 10 months

The accused in the child abuse case Father Vincent out on bail

Unmesh Gujarathi
Sprouts Exclusive

Due to loopholes left by the Pune police while registering a child abuse case against the sextortionist father of a Pune-based church, he has been able to get bail from the Pune District Sessions court, the Special Investigation Team of Sprouts has learnt from reliable sources.

Father Vincent Pereira attached to the church at Hadapsar in Pune used to indulge in unnatural sex with a 13-year-old schoolboy. Vincent carries many cases of sexual abuse on his head. Due to this, the boy’s parents rushed to the Hadapsar police station to lodge a complaint. However, the local police dilly-dallied the matter saying that they had no jurisdiction to deal with the case. Finally, harrowed parents approached at least four police stations and one police chowky to seek justice.

After that, the police took an oral confession and apology from the accused Vincent, and declared that the matter was closed. Thereafter the accused began threatening the parents.

The issue came to the notice of social activists Dominic Lobo and Maruti Bhapkar who took the matter again to the Hadapsar police. Due to the lackadaisical attitude of the local police, they met Pune Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta. Yet no offense was registered. Eventually, they lodged a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in New Delhi. The commission has served a notice to Hadapsar police station.

After nearly 10 months, the FIR was lodged by the Hadapsar Police who eventually transferred the case to the Kondhwa Police.

Doubtful role of police

The police are accused of intentionally omitting sections 16 and 21 of the POSCO while registering the complaint who was booked merely under section 8 of POSCO. This helped immensely to him and he was able to obtain bail from the Pune District Sessions Court easily.

In the meanwhile, social activists Dominic Lobo and Maruti Bhapkar are in the process of moving the Bombay High Court to ensure justice for the victim and strong action against the Hadapsar police for their dereliction of duty. This was recently revealed by the duo to the Special Investigation Team of Sprouts.