Srinagar: The principal district and sessions judge in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Friday sentenced a man to life imprisonment after finding him guilty of raping his minor daughter.
In his judgement, the principal district and sessions judge, Anantnag (also the special judge under the POCSO Act) sentenced the man to imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life after convicting him for raping his minor daughter.
FIR number 03/2022 was registered against the accused at the Women’s Police Station, Anantnag, under Sections 376 and 506 of the IPC and Sections 3 and 4 of the POCSO Act.
The court emphasised that the sentence should serve as a strong deterrent against crimes targeting minors.
“The accused shall undergo imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life,” the court observed, underscoring the need to uphold the dignity and rights of victims, particularly children who suffer abuse within the safety of their homes.
In addition to the life sentence, the court also awarded a compensation of over Rs 10 lakh to the victim under the Victim Compensation Scheme, directing the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), Anantnag, to ensure prompt disbursement of the amount.
The prosecution was effectively conducted by Public Prosecutor Abdul Rasheed Mir before the court of Principal District and Sessions Judge Anantnag, Tahir Khurshid Raina.
The judgment has been widely hailed as a firm judicial response to crimes of sexual violence, reaffirming the court’s commitment to justice and protection of minors.
The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act regarding child sexual abuse laws in India has been enacted as part of the child protection policies of India.
The Parliament of India passed the POCSO bill on May 22, 2012, making it an Act.
A guideline was passed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, India. The rules formulated by the government in accordance with the law were notified in November 2012, and the law had become ready for implementation. There have been many calls for more stringent laws. India has one of the largest populations of children in the world. Census data from 2011 shows that India has a population of 472 million children below the age of eighteen.
Protection of children by the state is guaranteed to Indian citizens by an expansive reading of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, and also mandated given India's status as a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and, therefore, the court imposed the maximum punishment permissible under law.
POCSO refers to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, a law in India that protects children below 18 years from sexual assault, sexual harassment, and pornography. Following the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019, the POCSO Act came into force in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and auto-generated from an agency feed.)
