A 46-year-old Church pastor Alavala Sudhakar was arrested last week over allegations of sexual assault on a minor girl in the Kakinada rural zone of East Godavari district.
As per reports, the pastor allegedly assaulted the minor girl on June 22 and as soon the victim’s mother came to know, she filed a police complaint in the Sarpavaram police station.
The pastor was attending a function on that day where he laid his eyes on the 10-year-old girl who he later convinced to go with him to a field away from the church and then proceeded to sexually assault the minor.
When the terrified 10-year-old girl started screaming for help, Pastor Sudhakar stuffed a fifty rupee note in her hand as a bribe asking her to not tell anyone about the incident.
The pastor was arrested and an FIR has been registered based on the complaint of the mother. He has been charged under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and other sections of the Indian Penal Code.
However, it has been found that the police has intentionally not slapped the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act despite the victim being from the Dalit community.
It is also being alleged that though the police, while briefing the media gave out the full name of the accused as Kalavala Gangadhar alias Sudhakar, they did not mention any details like original name, father name, caste, age, occupation about him in their FIR except his name.
The SC ST Rights Forum, a non-profit legal activism organization working for Dalit rights have alleged that the concerned police official who is investigating this case is having mala fide intention to favour the accused.
The organization has now written to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes to intervene in the matter.
Non-inclusion of sections of SC ST Prevention of Atrocities Act in FIR registered by Sarpavaram Police, East Godavari, AP in the case of sexual harassment by Pastor against 10year old minor SC Girl.
Wrote to National SC Commission seeking strict action.https://t.co/3xzn7NuvyH
— SC ST RIGHTS FORUM (@SCSTForum) July 12, 2021
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