Ghaziabad: A special court on Friday sentenced a 74-year-old man to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for sexually assaulting a five-year-old girl at a creche in Ghaziabad in 2016. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh, directing that the entire amount be paid to the survivor for her treatment and rehabilitation.Additional district and sessions judge Deepika Tiwary convicted Arun Kumar Sinha, a resident of Chhapra district in Bihar, under Section 5/6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act for aggravated penetrative sexual assault. The time Sinha has already spent in judicial custody will be adjusted against his sentence.In 2016, the minor was in kindergarten and would be left at the creche each day because both her parents returned late from work. The creche was run by the convict’s daughter-in-law. On Jan 4, the girl expressed reluctance to return to the creche while being brought home and told her father about what she described as the “dirty acts” by the convict. Her father filed a police complaint on Jan 12.Police registered a case under sections 376 (rape) and 377 (unnatural offence) of the Indian Penal Code, along with Section 5/6 of the Pocso Act. A chargesheet was filed on Feb 19, and the special Pocso court framed charges on Aug 29 of the same year.The prosecution examined five witnesses, including the survivor’s father, the minor, the examining doctor and police investigators. The defence examined two witnesses in support of the convict’s claim that he was at his native place in Bihar when the assault took place.The court gave the greatest weight to the testimony of the survivor, now a Class 10 student. The minor described the assault in detail, and said the accused had committed similar acts with other children at the creche, including his own granddaughter, and maintained consistency across her statement to police, her statement before a magistrate and her deposition in court during trial.Accepting her as a “sterling witness” — a legal standard applied when a victim’s account is found reliable enough to sustain a conviction without corroboration — the court noted that cross-examination by the defence failed to raise any material contradiction that could undermine her credibility.The court also found no contradiction between the accounts of the survivor and her father on the identity of the accused, the nature of the act or the circumstances in which it occurred.Special public prosecutor Sanjeev Bakharva said the judgment underlined a well-established legal principle that a credible and consistent statement by a survivor is sufficient to establish guilt, even when a medical report is inconclusive. “When the statement of the survivor is credible, there is no requirement of a medical report to establish aggravated penetrative sexual assault,” he said.Under Section 5(d) of the Pocso Act, penetrative sexual assault is classified as aggravated when committed by a person in a position of trust or authority over the child, including a caretaker. The court held that the prosecution had proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Sinha committed the offence, and sentenced him accordingly.
