Formulate policy for holistic care of child witnesses, Madras HC tells centre and state

CHENNAI: Though the directive principles of State policy insist on securing children from abuse, so far no action has been taken to assure victims become physically fit, mentally alert and morally healthy, held the Madras High Court, and impleaded the Union and State governments to take affirmative actions in this regard.

“We have no words to express the agony and anguish that an 8-year-old child would have undergone by witnessing her mother’s gruesome murder by her uncle, and the trauma which she may have experienced for these many years,” wrote a division bench of Justice MS Ramesh and Justice N Senthilkumar.

The bench directed the Union Ministry of Women and Children Development, and the State Social Welfare and Women Empowerment Department to file instructions of their views to initiate special measures for securing children from abuse, and ensuring they are given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner in conditions of freedom and dignity. The bench posted the matter to April 21 for further proceedings.

The bench also directed the State law officer to submit the report touching upon the medical status of the appellant who claimed to be affected with schizophrenia. The appellant Saravanakumar, sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering his sister, moved the appeal to set aside the life sentence imposed on him.

Senior counsel Abudu Kumar Rajaratnam for the appellant submitted that the girl was merely 8-year-old when she witnessed the murder, and would have undergone a severe trauma. “In these kind of cases, where the child is also a victim, adverse psychological problems could have bearing on the child’s future also,” he added, and suggested that she undergo psychological evaluation and counselling by experts, “for which a mechanism requires to be formulated by the government”.

Accepting the suggestion, the bench wrote: “This is not an isolated case where a child was traumatised witnessing her mother’s murder. We’ve been handling several cases frequently, where children are witnesses to several criminal offences. Children undergo mental agony where they witness heated arguments between their parents,” held the bench.

However, there were no policies, programmes or regulation by the government to assure such children become physically fit, mentally alert and stay morally healthy. “Even though the national policy for children published in 2013, it’s not being implemented,” wrote the bench and instructed both the State and Union governments to initiate special measures and affirmative actions to address the issue.

On April 7, 2018, Saravanakumar had a quarrel as his sister separated from her husband and had been living with their parents at Singanallur, Coimbatore. It was reported that she would constantly scold him for his behaviour, though he claimed he had schizophrenia. Getting frustrated with his sister, Saravanakumar killed her by attacking her neck with a machete.

Later, to erase the evidence, he cut her body into several pieces and dumped it into a suitcase.

The child was eight years old when she witnessed the crime. On April 22, 2022, the additional district court, Coimbatore, found Saravanakumar guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment with three years of rigorous imprisonment.