Man with polio gets three years’ rigorous imprisonment in POCSO case

PUNE: A special court in Pune convicted and sentenced a 37-year-old man, crippled by polio, to three years’ rigorous imprisonment for sexually harassing a 15-year-old girl in an attempt to get her to convince her friend to have an affair with him at Vadgaon Maval in November 2014.

Special judge D G Murumkar found the accused Nitin Mahadeo Dixit guilty on four counts i.e. offences punishable under Section 354-B (sexual harassment), 452 (house trespass) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC and Section 11 (sexual harassment) of the POCSO Act.

The court sentenced Dixit to three years’ rigorous imprisonment each for the sexual harassment offences under IPC and POCSO Acts and the house trespass offence, besides, six months rigorous imprisonment for the criminal intimidation offence. All these sentences are to run concurrently, the court ruled and said the accused be given the benefit of set off for the period from December 12, 2014 to February 3, 2015 when he was in jail under judicial custody.

Dixit’s lawyer had pleaded for a lenient view on account of his physical handicap and old parents dependent on him.

Judge Murumkar, however, observed, “Though the accused is handicapped by polio, he dared to commit house trespass while the victim minor girl, who is poor, residing in hut and was alone at the time of incident and by tearing her clothes, committed offences levelled against him, which are of serious nature. Therefore, having regard to aggravating and mitigating circumstances, I am of the opinion that some punishment is liable to be awarded to him to check the offenders in the society like present accused.”