Mumbai: Court Sentences 55-Year-Old Man To 12 Years Imprisonment For Repeatedly Assaulting Minor Under POCSO Act

Mumbai: Court Sentences 55-Year-Old Man To 12 Years Imprisonment For Repeatedly Assaulting Minor Under POCSO Act | Representational Image

Mumbai: The special court under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act has sentenced a 55-year-old man to 12 years in jail for repeatedly sexually assaulting an 11-year-old boy in March 2017. The accused resided with the victim, his father and another relative in Kandivali.

It is alleged that on March 16, 2017, the victim boy confided in his father that the man removed his clothes and made him touch him inappropriately. The father confronted the man and two fought over it, with the accused being given a warning to stay away from the child.

Two days later, the victim boy was sleeping on the mezzanine floor with the second relative in the night. Realising that his father wasn’t home, the accused sexually assaulted him and forced him into unnatural intercourse. He later threatened the boy to not reveal anything to anyone. The boy, however, narrated the assault to his father when he returned and a case was filed at Samta Nagar police station, following which the accused was arrested.

The accused claimed that a false case was registered against him over a financial dispute with the father, who allegedly refused to return the money he had borrowed for his daughter’s wedding. The accused also claimed that the case was a result of arguments over not being able to pay rent sometimes as he was residing as a tenant. He claimed that the boy was suffering from delusions and hallucinations.

The court refused to accept the defence. However, medical evidence was not available as the boy was taken for an examination only 20 hours after the incident. The police too claimed that the chemical analysis report was destroyed by rats in the police station. The court, however, relied on the testimony of the victim.

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