Mumbai: A special court last Friday sentenced a 58-year-old man, a vendor, to a ten-year jail term for sexually assaulting a five-year-old boy who was playing in his neighbourhood.
Judge MA Baraliya, a designated judge under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act said in her order that the accused is proved to have committed the serious crime with the victim boy. The court acquitted him of charges under IPC Sec 377 (carnal intercourse against the order of nature) and some offences under the POCSO Act, among which is one dealing with sexual harassment.
The mother of the boy had registered the complaint against the father of five daughters after the boy had come running to the house in a frightened state. As per the complaint, he had run up the stairs and not answered his mother when she asked what had happened. The mother had followed him up and found him sitting with his pant pulled down and crying. He had revealed that ‘Murgiwale chacha’ had given him Rs. 2 when he was playing outside. The man had then taken him inside his hut, asked him to lie on a plank and then half undressed both the child and himself and sexually assaulted the boy. The boy raised an alarm and was allowed to leave, after which he had run home.
