Mumbai: Observing that the five-year-old girl trusted the accused as he was her uncle’s factory employee and even danced on his shoulders before he sexually assaulted her and left her undressed in a swamp, a special Pocso court on Wednesday sentenced a 31-year-old man to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment (RI) for the aggravated penetrative sexual assault of the child during a wedding celebration in 2016. The convict has been in custody as an undertrial for over a decade, having been arrested the day after the incident on Jan 2, 2016. “The innocent girl was unable to resist the act of the accused… The accused was 21 years old at the relevant time. He was quite masculine; he overpowered the girl, who was very small. She was helpless against the act of the accused. The act of the accused is scarred on the sole of the victim,” special judge Ashwini D Lokhande said. While the court acquitted him of the charge of attempt to murder due to lack of evidence regarding intent to kill, he was found guilty under various sections of the IPC and the Pocso Act, including kidnapping and criminal intimidation. “In the present case, there is no evidence to prove that the accused caused hurt to the victim with the intention and knowledge that it would cause the death of the victim,” the judge said. Special public prosecutor Usha Jadhav established that on New Year’s Day in 2016, the victim and her mother were attending a relative’s wedding. During the celebrations, the accused, who worked for the victim’s uncle, was seen dancing with the child on his shoulders. When the mother briefly stepped away to drink water, the accused abducted the girl and took her to a swampy, wooded area near a municipal garden. He was later seen fleeing the spot by a witness who found the child unclothed, traumatised, and covered in mud. The girl later identified the accused, detailing how he had scratched her, bitten her, and subjected her to digital penetration. During the trial, the defence argued that the accused had been falsely implicated due to a financial dispute with his employer and pointed to procedural lapses in the investigation, including delays in sending forensic samples. However, the judge found the victim’s testimony and the medical evidence conclusive. The medical report confirmed various external injuries, including nail scratches on the child’s neck, waist, and thighs, as well as a bite mark on her lip.The judge observed that the prosecution successfully proved the foundational facts of the case. “The victim was 6 years old at the time of the incident. The accused, being the worker… the victim posed trust in him and danced with him at the relevant time. However, the accused had taken undue advantage of her innocence and took her into the swamp area at night.”Since the accused has been in jail since Jan 2016, the judge granted him set-off for the period already undergone. The judge also recommended the case to the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) for awarding compensation to the victim.
