Mumbai: The special POCSO court on Friday sentenced a 23-year-old neighbour to 20 years of imprisonment for sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl after taking the girl to his house to play ludo, during the lockdown in June 2020.
As per the prosecution case, the accused is a next door neighbour of the victim's family in VB Nagar. On June 10, 2020, the accused came to the house of the victim and took her to his house on pretext of playing ludo. After entering the house he closed the door from inside and began sexually abusing and assaulting the girl.
After a while, women from the neighbourhood heard cries of the girl from the house of the accused. When they peeped inside from the small space of the door, they saw accused sexually assaulting the girl. The women rescued the girl, while the accused ran away from the place.
The victim in her testimony said that, at the time of the incident, she was studying in standard 2 in the Municipal school. In the evening, of June 10, 2020, the accused came to their house, when her parents were sleeping. He took her to play Ludo. When the girl went with the accused, he closed the door and sexually assaulted her and also committed unnatural intercourse. The girl said because of the pain, she cried and neighbours gathered around the house of the accused.
Along with victim, the Public prosecutor VD More had examined, her father, neighbours who had rescued her and medical officer who confirmed that the girl was subjected to sexual assault.
The neighbour in her testimony said that when they heard noices from the house of the accused, they tried to peep in. One of the neighbour who testified before the court said, that when she tried to check what was the notice about, she peeped from the broken door and saw accused and girl were naked and accused was sexually assaulting her. The neighbour knocked the door but accused did not stop and did not open the door. The neighbour said it was only after a while the accused opened the door and ran away leaving the girl behind.
The neighbour said, after the accused ran away, they took the girl at her house. The neighbour further testified that they shouted at the girl and warned her. At that time the mother of the girl had gone to market while father was at home. The mother later confronted the girl about the incident. When the girl revealed everything to the parents, they lodged the case against the accused. The accused was arrested on the next day on June 11, 2020.
