Mumbai: A special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) court recently sentenced a 27-year-old man to six years imprisonment for sexually assaulting a nine-year-old at a madrasa in August 2017.
Special judge under the POCSO Act Sanjashree Gharat also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the youth, in default of payment of which, he will have to serve an additional two months of rigorous imprisonment.
The court, however, acquitted the youth of the charge of penetrative sexual assault by relying on medical reports and stated that on medical examination the hymen of the child was found intact.
As per the case registered at Dongri police station by the mother of the child, the child had gone with her twin sister to the Madrasa at 6.45 pm to learn the Quran. Before the classes, as per instructions of the Maulvi, the students take turns and clean the Madrasa. The child was cleaning accordingly, when the youth pulled down her leggings and inserted his finger in her private part. The child’s sister raised an alarm and both sisters fled to a nearby clinic crying and narrated the incident to a ‘didi’ of their acquaintance, who called the police. The children’s mother was returning from work when she had noticed a crowd and found her daughters crying. The crowd had caught hold of the youth and handed him over to the police who arrived at the spot. The police had found him to be under the influence of alcohol.
The youth had claimed false implication and said that he had scolded her when water splashed on him when she was cleaning and hence the complaint. The court said, immediately after the incident the children were found crying and they had narrated it to other prosecution witnesses and hence, that there is no room for concoction. “The immediate conduct of the parties plays an important role,” the court said.
