Mumbai: Duo gets 7 and 10 years’ jail for raping naval staffer’s teen daughter

MUMBAI: A special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act court on Monday convicted and sentenced a 35-year-old navy steward to 10 years’ imprisonment and a 29-year-old contractor to seven years’ imprisonment for blackmailing and repeatedly raping the 14-year-old daughter of a chief petty officer in 2015. A third accused, a navy sailor, accused of sexually assaulting the minor was acquitted. A fourth navy personnel accused of rape is absconding.
Special public prospector, Ratnavali Patil, said the minor was among the witnesses who deposed and identified the accused in court.
In her statement to the cops, the mother said she was returning home with her husband after visiting relatives around 9 pm on July 18, 2015 when she saw the navy steward leaving their house. Suspecting something amiss, the mother took the child into confidence.
The mother said her daughter told her the acquitted accused (41) was the first to befriend her in January 2015 and even gave her a phone. The two convicted accused also started calling her on the number.
It was further alleged the absconding accused then befriended her. The mother said the child had told her that in June 2015, the absconding accused took her to the terrace of a building and raped her. It was further alleged a week later, the accused came to the child’s house when her mother had gone out and raped her again.
Thereafter, the convicted accused, the contractor, also sexually assaulted her on two occasions. Similarly, the navy steward blackmailed her, and raped her on July 18, before the minor’s parents saw him.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)