School van driver gets five years in jail for sexually abusing 5-year-old

A special court designated under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act on Friday sentenced a school van driver to five years’ imprisonment

A special court designated under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act on Friday sentenced a school van driver to five years’ imprisonment for sexually abusing a five-year-old girl in Bandra in 2017.

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According to the complaint registered with the Bandra police station, the parents of the minor, then a senior KG student of a Bandra school, had hired the services of the accused to pick-up and drop their daughter from school.

The minor first approached her mother on March 27, 2017, complaining that the driver used to tease her.

The family, on March 29, confronted the accused and asked him to not tease the girl and be careful.

When the girl returned home in the evening, the same day, her mother found that she was frightened and that there were scratch marks on her back. When the mother asked the girl about what happened, the latter told her that the accused used to take the van behind the school after dropping off the other kids and touch her inappropriately and sexually abuse her.

The minor girl narrated the incident to the special POCSO court and also identified the accused. The special POCSO court, after considering the evidence submitted by the prosecution, held the van driver guilty of sexually assault.