E-Paper
Man gets 10 years in jail for sexually assaulting 6-year-old boy
A 24-year-old man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting a six-year-old boy multiple times in Mumbai. The court accepted the child's testimony as trustworthy, despite the lack of physical evidence. The defense's claim of false implication was rejected.
MUMBAI: A special court, set up under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, last week sentenced a 24-year-old man to 10 years imprisonment for sexually assaulting a six-year-old boy multiple times in 2019.
According to the complaint lodged by the boy’s father with the Chunabhatti police on May 6, 2019, the accused used to reside near the maternal grandparents of the boy, who was in the first standard at the time of the incident. The parents of the boy used to drop him at the grandparents’ house and take him back in the evening.
On May 5, 2019, when the boy’s mother went to pick up the boy, her sister informed her that the boy had been playing with the accused and the behaviour of the accused was abnormal with him. The mother later narrated this to her husband.
The complainant claimed that when they enquired with the boy, he revealed that the accused had sexually assaulted him on several occasions and he was suffering from pain. The parents then approached the police. A case was registered and the accused was arrested.
In the medical history given to the doctor during his examination after the registration of the case, the boy said that the accused sexually abused him for a month on a daily basis. However, the medical officer could not find any injuries due to lapse of time.
The special court, however, accepted the testimony of the child, calling it trustworthy.
The court rejected the defence that the accused was falsely implicated and the child had not described the act before the magistrate court, which recorded his statement.
The court said, “The children of such a tender age have very limited vocabulary and thus may find it difficult to express themselves precisely and effectively. In case of sexual assault, such communication become more difficult for them. It is because they could hardly understand such acts and its severity, although they may find it weird and at times painful. To put such acts with precision is a difficult task for a child. Even adults may find it difficult to narrate act of sexual assault with clarity.”
