New Delhi: Awarding compensation of Rs 10.5 lakh to a nine-year-old sexual assault survivor, a court convicted Pankaj of aggravated penetrative sexual assault, observing that children are a “supremely important national asset”.Additional sessions judge Siddharth Malik held that the child’s testimony was consistent and credible on all material facts and corroborated by other evidence on record. Minor contradictions in the testimony of a child witness are natural with the passage of time and do not, by themselves, indicate tutoring or false implication, it pointed out.The prosecution, led by advocate Garima Gupta, alleged that Pankaj sexually assaulted the girl while exploiting his access to her family home as a tenant when the parents were away.The court relied primarily on the survivor’s testimony, corroborating witness accounts, including that of a neighbour who had witnessed the crime happening, and other evidence.Rejecting the defence argument concerning the absence of medical or forensic evidence, the court observed that such evidence is meant to corroborate the survivor’s testimony, but its absence does not diminish her account.The court said children are a “supremely important national asset” and stressed the need for “compensatory justice” for survivors of sexual crimes to address their trauma and “rehabilitate and reintegrate them into the society”.The judge awarded Rs 10.5 lakh as final compensation to the child for the physical, mental and emotional trauma suffered and directed the West DLSA to disburse the amount within a month, after deducting any interim compensation already paid.
