12-year-old from Kerala fathers a child; gets booked under POCSO

A 12-year-old boy from Kerala has been booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) for fathering a child with a 16-year-old, making him perhaps the youngest father in India.

According to a report in The Hindu, the young mother delivered a baby girl at a hospital a few months ago in Ernakulam.

Investigators confirmed the paternity of the child this week after carrying out the genetic profiling of both the baby and the father.

A doctor, who spoke to The Hindu, said that the boy could have a condition called “precocious puberty,” in which a child attains puberty at a much earlier age.

The DNA profiles generated from the blood samples of the father and the baby, who was just 18 days old at the time of the scientific analysis, were compared to affirm the paternity.

In the “absence of identical twins, it was found that the alleged father was the biological father of the child” whose blood samples were examined, sources said.

Police earlier registered a case against the boy under the POCSO Act. The case had opened up a legal conundrum as both the victim and the perpetrator were minors.