Srividhya Ganapathy, a lawyer and co-chair of the Child Rights Innovation and Betterment Foundation, said Section 85 of the law states that the child, if a girl, must be under the care of a woman while under police custody.
This means there must be a policewoman in a police station to look into the welfare of female minors held in custody.
“Sad to say, the police are lax in enforcing the law that was passed 20 years ago when children are under their custody,” she said.
Srividhya said this in response to a case where a 16-year-old girl was allegedly raped by another inmate while being held in a police lock-up in the Miri police station on Jan 9.
The case, highlighted by DAP senator Alan Ling, allegedly took place a day after the teenager was picked up in a gambling raid.
Srividhya said the situation was also no better when children were brought to courts as their identities were exposed to the media.
Lawyer Baljit Sidhu said the law also allowed for the appointment of protectors, that included social welfare officers, to look into the plight of children who were held for criminal investigation.
“The police or the protector should liaise with each other to ensure a girl is kept in a welfare home when a lock-up is not conducive for detention,” he added.
Baljit who is a Bar Council criminal law committee member, revealed that only a few lock-ups in police stations nationwide were gazetted to detain children.
“In Jinjang police station, children and adults were put in the same facility but in different lock-ups,” Baljit said adding that policemen, particularly the officers in charge of police stations, also need to be sensitised.
Baljit hopes the Miri incident would be an eye opener to the government to ensure that sexual assault on children never happened in police lock-ups.
Lawyer M Visvanathan said there was no necessity for the police to detain the girl for an alleged gambling offence. “She could have been freed on a bond and sent home or kept in a welfare home pending the completion of the investigation,” he said.
Visvanathan said those who abetted in the crime should also be prosecuted. He said the girl’s family could sue the police for negligence and assault.
Miri police chief Hakemal Hawari said a detainee has been charged with rape at a Sessions Court.