22-year-old gets 10-year jail for raping minors

HYDERABAD: A local court on Thursday convicted a 22-year-old man in two separate cases of sexually assaulting a five-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl on August 23, 2016. The convict has been sentenced to 10-year and seven-year jail respectively and the sentences will run concurrently.

According to additional public prosecutor K Pratap Reddy, on August 23, 2016, the convict first sexually assaulted a 13-yearold girl and within a few hours he sexually assaulted a five-year-old boy at Kanchanbagh. The convict, who was a pan shop owner, dragged the girl to an isolated plot when she came out of her house to buy pan for her father and raped her.

A few hours later, the convict lured a five-year-old boy with chocolates into the bushes nearby his shop and sexually assaulted him. He was arrested on August 27, 2016.

“In his defence, the accused claimed that he was suffering with mental illness since 2012 but he did not produce any documents to prove that he was mentally unwell at the time of the offence. As a result, the court opined that the claims of the accused do not have any proof for substantiation. The victims identified the accused and the DNA analysis also proved that the offence was committed by the accused,” Reddy added.

The First Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge convicted the accused under relevant sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and IPC and sentenced him to undergo 10-year rigorous imprisonment for sexually assaulting the boy and sevenyear imprisonment for sexually assaulting the girl.