52-year-old shopkeeper sent to 5-years in jail for molesting 10-year-old girl

A 52-year-old shopkeeper in Mumbai has been sentenced to five years in jail for sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl while playing hide-and-seek in 2016. The accused claimed that he kissed the girl on the forehead as a way of greeting, but the court ruled against him.

MUMBAI: A special court designated under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) sentenced a 52-year-old shopkeeper to five years in jail for sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl in 2016 when she was playing hide-and-seek with her friends.

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According to Pydhonie police officials, the minor girl visited her grandparent’s house for her birthday celebration.

One evening, the girl and her cousins went playing hide-and-seek in the compound of the building and therefore, the girl was in search of a place to hide. The accused shopkeeper called her to hide in his shop and when she went inside, he took her to a corner, kissed her on her forehead and molested her. Scared, the girl ran away from the shop.

A few days later when she had gone to buy stationery, from the local shop, she saw the accused at the shop and got scared. She returned home and was informed about the incident. The family later confronted the accused, but he denied the allegations. Later, on July 16, 2016, the family of the girl reported the incident to the police and a case was registered against the accused with the Pydhonie police station.

The accused was arrested on the same day but was granted bail after two months on August 6, 2016.

At trial, the accused took a stand that he had been falsely implicated because of an old pending dispute between him and the maternal grandparents of the girl. Besides, the accused claimed that he belonged to Muslim community where kissing on the forehead is the way of greeting a child.

The prosecution, however, pointed out that a child is greeted in this fashion only when the two individuals are closely related. In this regard, the court said that by taking this stand the accused had admitted kissing the girl on the forehead of the victim and the child’s answer clearly showed that the accused was related to her and therefore that was not by way of greeting. About his defence of old animosity, the court said that the accused failed to bring any evidence to show that there was an old dispute between him and the girl’s maternal family.