Sanitation worker gets 10-year jail term for sexually assaulting 6-year-old boy

A special court in Mumbai sentenced a sanitation worker to 10 years for sexually assaulting a 6-year-old boy in Kurar village in 2018.

MUMBAI: A special court designated under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) on Monday sentenced a 41-year-old sanitation worker to ten years imprisonment after finding him guilty of sexually assaulting a 6-year-old boy at Kurar village in Malad.

Sanitation worker gets 10-year jail term for sexually assaulting 6-year-old boy

The incident was reported on April 25, 2018, when the boy went out to play with his friends in a lane near his house after coming back from school. At around 4.30 pm, the accused called him inside a parked auto rickshaw nearby and raped him.

As per the prosecution, after returning home, the child told his mother about the incident. The parents of the boy then went to search for the accused in their neighborhood, who found him sitting on a footpath in an inebriated state at around 12.30 am on April 26, 2018. He was subsequently taken to Kurar police station where an FIR was registered, and the accused was arrested.

The prosecution examined seven witnesses to bring home his guilt. The court relied on the deposition of a prime witness, a neighbour, who had seen the boy with the accused. The court observed that the evidence on record was sufficient to prove that on the evening of April 25, 2018, the accused sexually assaulted the boy in an auto-rickshaw in Kurar village.

Special judge Sameer Jahan Ansari sentenced the accused to ten years imprisonment observing that an appropriately severe punishment was required to be imposed upon the accused. “This is because he had sexually victimised a very small child aged about 6 years, which would have certainly traumatised him,” the court said.