Man booked for rape of 8-year-old denied bail

Mumbai: A special court designated under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act on Wednesday rejected the bail plea of a 24-year-old man booked for repeatedly sexually assaulting an eight-year-old along with an accomplice.
The court said that if he is released on bail it will create an adverse effect on the victim and noted that she is only eight years of age and he is 24 years. It also said that considering the evidence available, the offence is serious in nature.
Special judge under the POCSO Act Sanjashree J. Gharat also said that an FIR is filed against him for committing penetrative sexual assault on a minor aged about eight years which amounts to aggravated sexual assault. The judge also noted that after the medical records of the victim show that the hymen is not intact and there was swelling in her private parts and hence that there is prima-facie evidence suggestive of penetrative sexual assault.
The man had claimed bail stating that he had been falsely implicated in the case and disputed his proper identification by the child during the test identification parade.
As per the complaint registered by the child’s mother at Shivaji Nagar police station, the accused along with his accomplice took the child to a room and confined her. She had tried to raise an alarm, but they threatened her against doing so. Thereafter, they sexually assaulted her. They beat her when she tried to raise an alarm. They threatened her against revealing the matter to anyone.
The child’s mother came to know about it when she found her daughter seemed scared. She took her into confidence. The child told her that the men had done so with her on two to three occasions earlier too. Thereafter, the complaint had come to be lodged.