A girl who had been sexually assaulted as a six-year-old, testified before a court 12 years later at the age of 18, leading to her assaulter being sentenced to a year of simple imprisonment.
The victim was a medical student when she deposed before the court.
The incident took place in 2006, before the enactment of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), which introduced stringent punishments for sexual offences against children.
The court observed that her testimony shows that the incident was horrible to her and still gives her bad dreams at night and whenever she goes to the gynaecological department to see patients, she remembers the trauma of the incident. The victim had missed school for many days after the incident, she said in her testimony.
The incident took place in October 2006 when her parents were out at work and she was at her grandmother’s home with their help. The accused had made a phone call to her grandmother and said that a friend of the child had come to his home and she could come home to play with the friend.
The house help had taken the victim to his home. After an hour, the friend was taken home by his parents and the help was about to take the child home too. The man told her that the child is sleepy and could sleep at his place. The help, thus, left. The man had then taken the child to the bedroom and sexually assaulted her.
The offence of sexual harassment of a woman is not to be taken lightly, the court said.
“Such offences are heinous and have to be dealt with sternly,” metropolitan magistrate CP Kashid of Andheri magistrate court said.
The court added that he has committed the offence against a minor who is helpless. The man had sought leniency but the court said that considering the gravity of the offence levelled against him, he is not entitled to leniency.
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