60-year-old man gets 20 years in jail for raping Class 3 girl

The incident occurred in the evening of January 31, 2020, when the survivor, a Class 3 student, had gone to a local grocery store to buy biscuits, the public prosecutor told the (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) court on Monday, adding, “As she did not return for quite some time, her worried mother rushed to the store, but did not find her anywhere.”

Mumbai: A special court recently sentenced a 60-year-old man to 20 years imprisonment for raping an 8-year-old girl from his neighbourhood in January 2020.

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The incident occurred in the evening of January 31, 2020, when the survivor, a Class 3 student, had gone to a local grocery store to buy biscuits, the public prosecutor told the (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) court on Monday, adding, “As she did not return for quite some time, her worried mother rushed to the store, but did not find her anywhere.”

“As the woman was about to enter her house, her daughter came running and started crying. When she enquired with her about her whereabouts, the girl revealed that the accused pulled her into his house while she was returning from the grocery store and gagged her when she tried to raise an alarm. The child further revealed that the 60-year-old touched her inappropriately and sexually assaulted her, and she rescued herself after hearing her mother calling for her and fled from his house,” the court was told.

Based on a complaint lodged by the mother of the child the next day, the Vakola police arrested the accused under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and POCSO Act, 2012.

At the trial, the survivor’s mother and a close relative testified and narrated the ordeal suffered by the 8-year-old. The girl, who was 11 years old at the time of deposing before the trial court, narrated the entire sequence of events in detail. Besides, the prosecution also took support of medical and technical evidence to support its case against the accused.

The 60-year-old, on the other hand, claimed to be innocent and that he was falsely implicated in the case. His counsel argued that the incident took place in a slum pocket, where a person walking in the lanes between the slums can clearly hear the television or loud voices from inside the houses, and therefore her screams for help would have been heard by someone had an incident like this taken place.

The court rejected the defence, noticing that the survivor had stated that the accused had gagged her mouth when she tried to scream for help. The court also held that the testimony of the girl inspired confidence, as she had “categorically answered the questions put to her pertaining to the incident,” and was fully corroborated by other evidence on record.

“The testimony of the victim is fully corroborated by the evidence of the informant (her mother), her cousin, and hence it inspires confidence,” said special judge Nazera Shaikh. “Even the medical evidence proves that the victim was sexually assaulted.”

After the court convicted him, the 60-year-old pleaded for leniency and sought a minimum sentence be handed down to him because he came from a weak financial background and was the only earning member of the family.

The special court rejected the plea and sentenced him to 20 years imprisonment, observing that time and again, the Supreme Court has held that punishment must befit the crime.