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Sexual harassment of badminton players: Pocso court awards jail terms to son and father
The court also ordered that around two and a half years of prison term already served by Vijay Sinha will be deducted from his sentence
LUCKNOW The court of special judge (Pocso Act) on Friday awarded a seven-year prison term to former working secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Badminton Association (UPBA) Nishant Sinha and a five-year term to his father and former secretary of the UPBA Vijay Sinha in a January 2017 case related to sexual harassment of female badminton players of Babu Banarasi Das Uttar Pradesh Badminton Academy. The court also imposed a fine of ₹50,000 each on them.
The father-son duo was sentenced under various sections of the Pocso Act.
Additional district judge Vijendra Tripathi, who is special judge (Pocso Act), pronounced the verdict and ordered the cops to take the duo into custody and send them to prison.
The court also ordered that around two and a half years of prison term already served by Vijay Sinha will be deducted from his sentence. Currently, both father and son were out on bail.
The then chief security officer of the BBD Uttar Pradesh Badminton Academy, Jang Bahadur Singh, had on February 20, 2017, lodged an FIR against Vijay Sinha and his son Nishant at the Gomti Nagar police station. He accused the father-son duo of extorting money from players of the academy and accused the son of sexually exploiting some of the female players.
The court found Vijay Sinha guilty under Sections 10, 16/17 of Pocso Act, along with sections 354-A /109 of the IPC. Nishant was found guilty under Section 9 (F)/10 of the Pocso Act and Section 354-A of the IPC.
“The prosecution presented nine witnesses in the case. Three of them were victims (minor girls), one male badminton player, security officer and a physiotherapist,” said advocate Manoj Tripathi, district government counsel (crime).
Two sub inspectors, who were investigating officers, and another SI, were also witnesses in the case, he added.
Advocate Abhishek Upadhyay, who represented the state government in court, said: “The prosecution proved all charges beyond doubt in the court. After the court announced the verdict, both father and son were taken into custody and sent to jail.”
Upadhyay added that it took eight years to pronounce the verdict as the accused had challenged proceedings of the trial court several times in the Supreme Court.
