Mumbai man gets seven years jail for ‘sexually abusing minor’

The court convicted Ansari on charges including sexual harassment and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act, 2012. (Representational)

A man who sexually abused an 11-year-old girl in 2013 was sentenced to seven years in prison on Friday. The convict, Ayyaz Mohammadali Ansari, who is a repeat offender in sexual assault casts, is facing prison terms including life imprisonment in three separate cases.

According to the prosecution, the incident took place when the girl left her house to purchase eatables in 2013. The convict accosted the 11-year-old girl and claimed to be an acquaintance of her father. He threatened her with a ‘knife-like’ object and took her to a secluded building, where he toucher her inappropriately. His assault continued for some time but when the lights in the building suddenly turned on, he fled.

The girl ran to her parents who approached the police. Based on her description, Versova police took Ansari into custody, who was later booked in another case.

In his defence, Ansari claimed that he had been falsely implicated in 13 cases of child sexual abuse by a police officer who wanted to “build his image”. He claimed to be innocent, and said the police only charged him because they could not arrest the “real culprit”. He claimed that the victim’s evidence identifying him was incorrect as he was the only man in the Identification Parade with a disability in his eye. The other evidence was the CCTV footage from the building where the assault took place, but the court concluded it was unreliable because it was unclear.

The court observed that the police did not examine any person on the authenticity of the footage. But relying on the victim’s deposition, it convicted Ansari on charges including sexual harassment and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act, 2012.