Mumbai: Children will be safe only when sexual offenders dealt with strictly, says Court

Imposing a 15-year-jail sentence and a fine of Rs 75,000 on a young bakery worker found guilty of sexually assaulting a six-year-old child who had come to the shop to buy a chocolate, a special court has reasoned that children in society will only be safe from such persons when such acts are dealt with strictly.

The 22-year-old had inserted his finger in the child’s vagina. The court said that the sentence will act as a deterrent and also give a message to society at large that such a sexual assault is severely punishable. “No shopkeeper should ever take advantage of an innocent child who comes to the shop for a small purchase of chocolate,” special POCSO judge Priti Kumar (Ghule) stated in the judgment.

The court added that a youth like the accused should do good deeds for society, but has instead committed a heinous offence on a child. It said he has to realise that wrong sexual intent on a child has spoilt his future as well as that of the child. The period of imprisonment will give him time to introspect and come out a good citizen, judge Ghule said.

Seeking leniency in sentencing, the youth had told the court that he had never gone to school and that he wanted to study in future.

The prosecution had emphasised upon the court that the incident had caused trauma to the child, then only in Class 1, to such an extent that even when the accused was shown for identification to the child in court through video-conference, the child had broken down on seeing him.

The child testified in court and said that the ‘uncle’ had called her inside the bakery when she had gone to purchase the chocolate. She had refused and he had persuaded her saying he would give her money and she had entered. She had then narrated how the sexual assault took place. The court noted in its order that the child started crying during her testimony and that she was uncomfortable recollecting the incident.