Dharavi resident gets 5-year jail term for sexually assaulting 5-year-old

A 45-year-old Dharavi resident was sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment by a special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act court on Saturday for molesting and assaulting his neighbour’s 5-year-old daughter in 2020

MUMBAI: A 45-year-old Dharavi resident was sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment by a special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act court on Saturday for molesting and assaulting his neighbour’s 5-year-old daughter in 2020. Special judge Kalpana K Patil also imposed a ₹10,000 fine on the convict.

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According to the prosecution, the child, residing with her family known to the accused, was lured into his house on January 24, 2020, where the assault occurred.“He gave me a chocolate and took me to his house. Aunty (Wife of the accused) was not at home. He then closed the door and removed my clothes,” said the child in her deposition.

Following the incident, the accused left the child near her house and fled from the scene. When the victim went back home, her mother took her to take a bath. “While bathing, she suddenly started crying. When I asked her if anything had happened, she told me that uncle had done something wrong with her because of which she was experiencing immense pain in her private parts,” said her mother in her testimony.

When the parents of the child confronted the accused, he and his wife denied the allegations. Subsequently, the mother of the child reported the incident to the Dharavi Police Station.

The accused’s lawyer, advocate Sujit Satam, contended that the mother and child’s statements during oral testimony had notable changes. The child acknowledged that some details she presented in court were provided to her by the police.

He also submitted that the accused had a dispute with one of the neighbours, who was now in jail, and to avenge him, the neighbour had instigated the mother of the child to lodge a false complaint against him, and further claimed that the informant demanded ₹50,000 from his wife. However, when the court questioned him, the accused was unable to remember the name of the neighbour he had a dispute with.

The court accepted special public prosecutor Jyoti Sawant’s argument that minor omissions and contradictions in the evidence of prosecution witnesses do not affect their credibility.

The court observed that since the prosecution had successfully proven the commission of offence by the accused, under section 29 of the POCSO Act, the burden lies on the accused to rebut the presumption of guilt.

“Here in the present case, the burden was on the accused to prove beyond all reasonable doubt about his intention behind taking the victim girl inside his house and committing the said act. The accused has failed to rebut the presumption by way of cross-examination of prosecution witnesses as well as from his oral evidence,” said the court.

The accused was booked for committing offence under sections 8 (sexual assault) and 10 (aggravated sexual assault) of the POCSO Act, 2012.