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Bombay high court cuts POCSO convict’s life term for ‘writing essays’
The court also took note of the three certificates the accused earned while in jail, which were produced by his lawyers O P Lalwani and Gypson John.
Mumbai : While upholding the conviction of a man under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the Bombay high court (HC) last week reduced his punishment from life imprisonment to 12 years in jail, taking into account, among other things, the certificates he had earned from participating in programmes on reading Mahatma Gandhi’s thoughts, writing essays and analyses of books, during his period of incarceration.
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The accused, a resident of a Ghatkopar chawl, was 20 years old when he committed aggravated sexual assault on a five-year-old girl — his neighbour’s daughter — in December 2016. He was convicted in 2020. While the HC found no fault in the special POCSO court convicting the man for the crime, it cited various reasons for reducing the span of his punishment from life to 12 years, of which he had already served over nine. The court said when the accused committed the offence, he had no criminal antecedents and, “it is also important to note that the accused was not released on bail, even during Covid-19.”
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The court also took note of the three certificates the accused earned while in jail, which were produced by his lawyers O P Lalwani and Gypson John. They included a certificate issued by Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth, Pune, for participating in a programme on “analyses of books”, a second certificate by Ramchandra Pratishthan, Mumbai, for participating in “essay competition” and a third certificate by Mumbai Sarvodaya Mandal “for studying the thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi, where he had successfully participated and passed the examination,” the judges said in their order.
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A division bench of justices Sarang Kotwal and Sandesh Patil said: “All these factors considered cumulatively, would make us show some leniency towards him for the sentencing part.”
The judges also said that considering the gravity of the offence, they had imposed a sentence which is more than the minimum of 10 years. “In our opinion, the sentence of 12 years would meet the ends of justice,” they said.
