Bandra resident gets 10-year jail term for sexually abusing minor daughter

Mumbai: A special court in the city sentenced a 43-year-old Bandra resident to ten years of rigorous imprisonment in a case filed under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for sexually abusing his minor daughter for years under the influence of liquor

Mumbai: A special court in the city sentenced a 43-year-old Bandra resident to ten years of rigorous imprisonment in a case filed under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for sexually abusing his minor daughter for years under the influence of liquor.

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The accused alleged that he was falsely implicated as the complainant was in an extra-marital affair and hiding accounts of her expenses.

The special judge rejected the defence and observed, “It cannot be grounds to falsely implicate the accused in the present case, as no mother would use her daughter as a weapon to make false allegations against her husband. It is a stigma on the family.”

“No mother would expose the honour of her daughter and expose the family to risk condemnation by the society, on the ground of demanding expenditure details by her husband or to hide her affair with anyone,” the court observed.

The mother of the girl – also the wife of the accused had on January 13, 2014, complained to the Bandra police station, alleging that he sexually abused their daughter.

The daughter had told her mother that the accused was sexually abusing her for 7­/8 years and she could not understand what the accused was doing with her. She claimed that she used to bear all the acts of the accused, as he was her father and many times, he had consumed liquor with the fear that the accused would beat the victim or stop her further education.

The prosecution claimed that after the victim narrated the ordeal, the mother went to the police station for advice on January 12, 2014, but returned without registering the case. The next day when the accused came, she confronted him and he admitted that he assaulted the daughter under the influence of liquor. That’s when the mother lodged the case.

The accused at the time of trial took the defence of delay in registering the case. The court discarded the defence saying, “the delay in the present case has been properly explained. The accused was the only earning member of the family. The victim was approximately 10 years old when the initial incidents occurred. She could not understand what the accused was doing with her. She could not resist the accused, who is her father. It is when she was given sex education in 9th Standard, she came to know the nature of heinous acts committed by the accused.”