Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of Assam, said on Monday that he is carefully watching a situation in which a medical couple was detained for allegedly torturing children who they claimed to have adopted.
Sarma promised to write to the Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court to guarantee that justice is served within six months while speaking at a news conference. “I've requested that the police submit the chargesheet within 30-45 days. I keep an eye on the situation on a daily basis,” he stated.
A doctor and the domestic help for his family were detained in Guwahati on Saturday, while his psychiatrist wife—who often appears in discussion programmes on mental health topics on local TV channels—was apprehended on Sunday while attempting to depart the city.
The doctor couple and their maid, who has also been detained, have been charged under many IPC sections and the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act), respectively. They were brought before the Chief Judicial Magistrate after being detained, who remanded the couple to five days in police prison and the maid to judicial custody.
A team from Paltan Bazar police station went to their apartment on Friday evening and took up the doctor and his family's domestic help after receiving information from the police that a four-year-old girl had been tied to a pole on the terrace of their flat and held there for hours.
The child was taken for a medical checkup, and the results indicated that, in addition to having damage marks on her body and private areas, she had also been sexually molested. The police are looking into whether the couple followed the correct legal process for adoption, Guwahati Police Commissioner Diganta Barah had stated on Sunday. The pair claimed to have three children that they had adopted.
The other two kids were also rescued by the cops from their flat and sent to a doctor for a checkup. On the day of the doctor's arrest, the doctor's wife recorded a video and posted it to social media, alleging that her family was the target of a plot to “defame and destroy” them.
Also taking notice of the situation, the Assam Commission for Protection of Child Rights (ASCPCR) wrote to the civil and police administration requesting that an investigation be opened and that the offenders be brought to justice.
