Mumbai: A year after 17-year-old’s death, another sexual assault case at Sassoon home

A broken cricket bat alleged to be the murder weapon and confessions from 16 juveniles forms the bulk of the evidence against seventeen accused chargesheeted by the Shivaji Park police in September last year.

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“I have been visiting David Sassoon Children Home and court but nothing is happening,” said the sexagenarian father of the deceased teenager. According to him, the case is being heard at the sessions court and the next hearing is on June 23. “Only postmortem reports and doctor’s statement have been heard in the court till now. The process is very slow,” the father said.

In 2015, the minor was shifted between two civic-run hospitals — Nair and Rajawadi — before he succumbed to his injuries. His body was sent to JJ Hospital for a postmortem.

There is at least one written medical record from Rajawadi Hospital in which the medical officer suspects it to be a case of “polytrauma with sexual assault”. The minor had 23 injuries all over his body, mostly on the back, buttocks and arms.

According to a senior DSCH official, the authorities had transferred the superintendent in-charge of DSCH and also the caretaker after finding them accountable for the incident.

While the DSCH had taken up a slew of measures, from securing its boundary wall to increasing number of security guards to two on each floor, the latest case of sexual assault mirrors the old one.

Both took place in the dormitory and the victims were threatened by accused inmates to stay quiet.

“As administrators, we have taken necessary steps. To give the family of the deceased justice is up to to the court and the police,” said a senior official with DSCH on the condition of anonymity.

Three separate probes, including one judicial, were initiated into the minor’s death but the father wants the DSCH officials to be arrested. “We continue to wait for David Sassoon Home to take some action,” the father said.

Central to the probe of last year’s crime is a dying declaration made by the victim, alleging that he was assaulted by a 17-year-old dorm monitor and a 33-year-old inmate.

According to an investigating officer attached with the Shivaji Park police station, the 33-year-old accused is currently lodged in Arthur Road Jail.

Following the latest sexual assault case, in which the victim gives a history of sodomy and oral sex on two different occasion, the Shivaji Park police on June 8 booked another 17-year-old inmate at DSCH.

The accused in this case has been lodged at a children’s home in Dongri since Friday.