20-year jail term for man convicted of raping 7-year-old

A 23-year-old man in Mumbai has been sentenced to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment for the rape of a 7-year-old girl in 2020. #POCSOAct

Mumbai: A special court under the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, on Friday sentenced a 23-year-old man from Kurla to a 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for the rape of a 7-year-old girl in 2020. Special judge R K Kshirsagar also imposed a fine of ₹20,000 on the accused.

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Additional public prosecutor Vinod More and Sureeta Singh emphasised that the victim’s testimony and the accounts of eyewitnesses provided ample evidence to establish the case against the accused. They underscored the difficulty in proving such cases, making the presence of eyewitnesses crucial.

According to the prosecution, the incident occurred on June 10, 2020, when the victim was at home with her parents. Around 5:30 pm, with the mother out and the father asleep, the accused, Jagdish Kamalsingh, entered the house and invited the victim to play “Ludo” at his place.

The victim stated, “I went with him. He bolted the door from inside. He removed my clothes and then his clothes. I suddenly felt heavy pain, so I shouted and made noise, due to which the surrounding people gathered at the spot. I knew something was wrong.”

Neighbours, alerted by the screams, rushed to the scene and knocked on the accused’s door. An eyewitness neighbor stated, “When we knocked, the accused did not open the door immediately. So, I peeped in and saw that the girl’s trousers were removed, and he was standing in front of her.”

The victim’s father, awakened by the chaos, rushed outside. “The neighbours came running to me, shouting, and asked me to keep the daughter inside the house. Initially I did not understand what had happened,” said the father.

During the trial, the doctor at Sion hospital confirmed the rape of the victim by the accused.

The accused faced charges under sections 376(2)(i) (punishment for rape) and 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, and sections 4(2) (punishment for penetrative sexual assault), 8 (punishment for sexual assault), and 12 (punishment for sexual harassment) of the POCSO Act.