Mumbai: The special POCSO court sentenced a 30-year-old son of a landlord for sexually harassing an 8-year-old daughter of the tenants who resided at the mezzanine floor of their house in 2016. The man called the girl at his house on the pretext of giving her birthday gift and started touching her inappropriately in February 2016.
As per the case regarding the mother of the victim with Ghatkopar police station on February 18, 2016, the family was residing at the mezzanine floor in the house of the accused's father for the last eight years prior to the incident.
Victim's birthday was on February 6, 2016. A day after her birthday, on February 7, 2016, the accused called the girl to his house on the pretext of giving her a birthday gift. It was claimed that when the girl accompanied the man inside his house, the man closed the door, removed her clothes and started touching her inappropriately. However, as someone knocked the doors he dressed the girl and himself and let the girl go. The girl in her testimony said, even after this the accused again called her inside the house but she refused.
The mother said she had dropped the girl at the house of her mother-in-law and went to work. The accused lured her while she was playing outside. When the mother returned home at 9 o'clock, she found the victim behaving unusually and scared. When the mother confronted her, the girl revealed about the incident.
Victim's family threatened by the accused
The family later told the accused that they will lodge a complaint. However, they were threatened by the accused and his family. The mother claimed that they decided to not escalate it due to a prestige issue as well. However, when the accused, his friends and family members started keeping watch on the victim and her family they lodged a complaint after eleven days of the incident.
The accused had claimed that a false case was registered by the family of the victim because the mother of the accused had asked them to vacate the room in a month. It was claimed that the accused was to get married and their house was not sufficient for them, hence they asked the victim's family to vacate the house.
However, the court denied the defence and said, "There was a suggestion by the accused that the mother of the accused had given a notice to the victim’s mother to vacate the room. However, no such document or evidence which was easily available have not been brought on record. It is also material to note here that the informant is the mother of the victim and there was no reason for her to implicate the accused in a false case, by using the victim as a puppet when they had cordial relations with each other. There is nothing on record to discard the evidence of the informant."
