PUNE: A sessions court on Tuesday convicted and sentenced a 41-year-old man from Maval taluka to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment for sexually assaulting a girl (5) residing in his neighbourhood in October 2016.
The girl was playing in front of her house on October 30, 2016, when the accused (name withheld to protect the victim’s identity) visited her house and asked her mother for some food. After eating, he took the girl with him to a nearby farm field and sexually assaulted her before dropping her back home.
The incident came to light the same evening when the girl complained of pain in her private parts and narrated the incident to her mother. The lodged an FIR with the Talagaon Dabhade police the following day, after which the accused was arrested.
Additional sessions judge R V Adone found the accused guilty of an offence under Section 5(m) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for aggravated sexual assault and sentenced him to 10 years in jail, besides imposing Rs 10,000 fine on him.
The court further directed that Rs 7,000 of the fine amount be given to the survivor as a compensation. In addition to that, the district legal services authority may decide the quantum of compensation to be awarded to the survivor under the state government’s victim compensation scheme, the court ruled.
Additional public prosecutor Leena Pathak, who examined seven witnesses in support of the prosecution’s case, told TOI, “The court found the evidence recorded by the survivor as steady, reliable and unshakeable by the cross-examination. It also relied on the evidence recorded by the survivor’s mother and the investigating officer, besides the medical evidence that brought out the sexual assault.”
The convict has been lodged in the Yerawada jail ever since his arrest. The court ordered that he be given the benefit of set-off against the period of detention so far.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
The girl was playing in front of her house on October 30, 2016, when the accused (name withheld to protect the victim’s identity) visited her house and asked her mother for some food. After eating, he took the girl with him to a nearby farm field and sexually assaulted her before dropping her back home.
The incident came to light the same evening when the girl complained of pain in her private parts and narrated the incident to her mother. The lodged an FIR with the Talagaon Dabhade police the following day, after which the accused was arrested.
Additional sessions judge R V Adone found the accused guilty of an offence under Section 5(m) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for aggravated sexual assault and sentenced him to 10 years in jail, besides imposing Rs 10,000 fine on him.
The court further directed that Rs 7,000 of the fine amount be given to the survivor as a compensation. In addition to that, the district legal services authority may decide the quantum of compensation to be awarded to the survivor under the state government’s victim compensation scheme, the court ruled.
Additional public prosecutor Leena Pathak, who examined seven witnesses in support of the prosecution’s case, told TOI, “The court found the evidence recorded by the survivor as steady, reliable and unshakeable by the cross-examination. It also relied on the evidence recorded by the survivor’s mother and the investigating officer, besides the medical evidence that brought out the sexual assault.”
The convict has been lodged in the Yerawada jail ever since his arrest. The court ordered that he be given the benefit of set-off against the period of detention so far.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
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