In December 2007, the honorable session’s court in Delhi passed a judgment sentencing a man to eight years of rigorous imprisonment for having assaulted his daughter. Terming the act barbaric and shocking the judge said it was a great misfortune that the country is forced to witness such heinous offences.

The judgment further said, ‘To record the statement of the victim, the police officials had taken the girl to the police station; however even after repeated attempts the police were unable to get any information out of the girl against her father. The police then contacted a Delhi based NGO Swanchetan and sought its facilitation for recording the victims statement. The NGO sent two of its counselors who after speaking to the girl at length, were finally able to make her speak about the incident. The girl revealed that, apart from making advances towards her on several occasions her father had raped her several times. A case of rape was registered against the father’.

The following are the facts of the case according to the Swanchetan:
The girl, Nafisa (name changed) was 13 years old when brought to the police station in a state of acute terror by her mother after she reported that the father had beaten her severely. Swanchetan was asked to provide counseling vide standing order 303 which allows the organization to provide counseling to traumatized children.

The staff of Swanchetan found her in the police station huddled in a corner and when they started talking to her, she presented the psychological profile of a child having undergone prolonged sexual abuse. She didn’t exactly present the profile of someone gone through only severe violence. Using trauma counseling methods with her, Nafisa shared her traumatic childhood at the hands of her father.

The psychologists motivated her to share her narrative with the police and later to the court. They convinced the police to change the case to aggravated sexual assault from the earlier one of violence. Nafisa’s case was then lodged only based on psychological analysis and profile of her and her father. The psychologists were made state witnesses.

Over the next four years, they had to go to the courts many times and face highly intimidating cross questioning by defense counsel. Nafisa faced threats to take her case back and faced enormous pressure from her community and had to be supported by us.

It was her inner faith, her courage and resilience that led her to go through all these hardships. She also joined a school with a small grant from Swanchetan and learned to live her life with children of her age.

Over four years Nafisa’s case witnessed violent arguments between the defense and the prosecution with the defense attacking the very notion of any psychologists or psychological assessments of trauma as ground for conviction in rape.

Nafisa’s integrity and courage finally led the court to accept her narrative of abuse as truthful.

Justice Malimath remarked on hearing the judgment, ‘This possibly is the first case where a judgment on child sexual abuse has been given based on psychological assessment …..This is a historic day for the Indian criminal justice system, for all of us and for the future of victimology in India’.

The staff at Swanchetan celebrated it by gathering and lighting a candle for justice and pledging their support for all the Nafisas in our country needing justice.

Today Nafisa passes by as any other teenager of her age with a dream in her eyes.

The case attracted vide attention from media, civil rights groups, human rights organizations and can set a precedent for complex cases involving sexual abuses of children.

Apart from the above case of Nafisa, Swanchetan has provided expert evidence in courts on a number of   issues which have included:
Malingering
False allegations in sexual abuse cases
Reliability of testimony of survivors
Mental state of offenders

In an average month we provide evidence in nearly two to three cases. The evidence given by us pertains to reliability of victim’s testimony to the plea of insanity by the offender. We understand that in many cases, we as psychologists, are witnesses present along with the law enforcement officers and our observations may have an independent and objective contribution to make towards establishing the truth of the case.

In two recent cases Swanchetan testified in court about a pedophilic serial killer who tried to feign mental illness to escape his culpability in the crime.
In another case Swanchetan gave evidence against an official who misused his official position to abduct and torture a minor girl and then tried to cover it up using his position.

In many cases it has involved us working against the powerful, the dangerous and taking risks for the sake of justice for the oppressed. In the coming years this can lead to institutionalization of behavioral analysis and feedback as evidence in the criminal justice system.