The court relied on the testimony of the two boys and said that the act committed by the accused was with sexual intent. A 52-year-old athletics teacher earlier this week was convicted and sentenced to five years in jail for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy on the pretext of giving him a medal and a certificate for participating in a competition. Although accused of sexual assault on two boys, a POCSO court in Mumbai convicted him for his act only on one of them as the age of the other boy could not be proven. The court also acquitted the man of other charges, including that of criminal intimidation.
According to the prosecution, in June 2016, the boy’s mother had received a call from the accused, who had organised a marathon competition. He had asked for the boy to be sent to receive a medal and certificate. The accused then met the two boys at a ground and took them to his home. The minor in his testimony told the court that the accused pretended to show them a magic trick and then touched one of them inappropriately. They fled from there and later informed their parents about the incident.
The accused denied the allegations and said since the competition had been cancelled and the boys did not receive any medal, certificate and a T-shirt, they filed a false case against them. The court, however, said that the claim was denied by the witnesses. “Furthermore, if similar T-shirts, medal and certificate are available in the market, then victims can easily get them from the market and it is not necessary for them to run behind the accused and file a false case against him,” the court said.
The court relied on the testimony of the two boys and said that the act committed by the accused was with sexual intent. It said that the charges of sexual abuse were proven against one victim as the second victim’s age could not be proven by the prosecution.
“Now a days there are maximum cases in respect of children who have been sexually abused. The legislation has taken initiative to protect the children from sexual offences. The result of which (is) the enactment (of) The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act,” the court said.
The court also took into consideration that the teacher was convicted in a previous case under POCSO Act. In 2019, a special court had sentenced him to six years in jail for sexual abuse of a minor boy in 2015.
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