Ghaziabad: A special Pocso court on Saturday sentenced a Sahibabad man to 20 years rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 for aggravated penetrative sexual assault of his own daughter in 2024.Additional sessions judge Vinod Kumar-VI held the man guilty under Section 376AB of the Indian Penal Code and Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.The matter is linked to an FIR registered by the minor’s mother on Feb 19, 2024. She said she had left for work on the day, leaving her three children with her husband. When she returned, she found her second child, a 4-year-old daughter, in immense pain and lying in blood-soaked clothes. When she enquired, her daughter said she was molested by her father.During the trial, the defence counsel argued that there were no independent witnesses to the incident. Both witnesses are interested witnesses, whose evidence cannot be considered proven.Special public prosecutor Satish Kumar Sharma countered that the number of witnesses is not crucial to proving an incident. In most cases of sexual assault, it is impossible to find an independent witness. “On this point, the Supreme Court held in Food Inspector vs G. Satyanarayana (2004), it is the quality of the evidence that is important, not the number of witnesses. A conviction can be based on the testimony of even one witness, if found to be fully and comprehensively credible,” he said.Having heard both sides, the court said that the survivor fully proved the prosecution’s case through her accurate and convincing evidence.
