NEW DELHI: Castigating the Haryana Police for its "shameful" and "insensitive" approach in the rape case of a three-year-old, the Supreme Court on Wednesday constituted a Special Investigation Team of women IPS officers to conduct a fair investigation into the crime that took place in Gurugram.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi asked the Haryana government to immediately notify the SIT and directed the Gurugram Police to hand over the case records to the probe panel.
The bench rapped the Haryana Police for downgrading the offence from a harsher provision to a milder one in its FIR filed under the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act.
It also pulled up a doctor at a private hospital for completely changing her version on the child's statement and said, "It was shameful for a doctor to do so".
The top court issued show cause notices to officials of Gurugram Police and asked them why action should not be taken against them for shoddy investigation in the case.
"Why cannot the police go to the victim's house? Are they kings? The one who went was arrested on corruption charges," the top court said, calling the approach "shameful" and "insensitive".
The bench also issued a show cause notice to Gurugram Child Welfare Committee (CWC) as to why they should not be removed.
"The conduct of CWC members, as seen from the February 5 report, compounded the victimisation. The entire police force -- from commissioner to the sub-inspector -- made all attempts to prove that the child had no proof and the parents did not make any case. There is no room for doubt that an offence on Section 6 under POCSO was apparently committed," the bench observed.
The top court then directed the Gurugram district judge to entrust the case to a senior woman judicial officer presiding over a POCSO court in the city.
The three-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted by two female domestic helps and their male accomplice for approximately two months at a society in Sector 54, police had said.
Following allegations made by the child's parents, an FIR was registered on February 4 under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the POCSO Act at the Sector 53 police station, they added.
According to the police, although the incident occurred between December 2025 and January 2026, the parents reported the matter to the police after the girl disclosed her ordeal to her mother.