Ghaziabad: Eight years on, a special POCSO court on Friday sentenced a man to 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 after convicting him of aggravated penetrative sexual assault on a seven-year-old girl.The case stems from an FIR registered at Sahibabad police station on Nov 21, 2018, based on a complaint filed by the survivor’s mother regarding an incident that allegedly took place on Nov 11 that year.The complainant said that her daughters, aged nine and seven, were playing near their residence when one of their neighbours allegedly took them to his car, parked nearby, and raped her younger daughter. The elder one was given a phone to play with.The mother told police she learnt about the incident around 10 days later after the child complained of pain in her genitalia and disclosed the assault. The FIR was registered under Section 376AB of the IPC and Section 5/6 of the POCSO Act. The accused was arrested the same day, and a chargesheet was filed on Dec 4, 2018.The court framed charges on Feb 17, 2020, but the accused pleaded not guilty and sought trial. During the proceedings, the prosecution presented nine witnesses, including the survivor, her mother, her sister and the doctor who examined the child. The defence examined three witnesses, including the accused’s wife.The defence argued that there were inconsistencies in the witnesses’ statements. However, the prosecution submitted that the discrepancies related only to peripheral details, such as whether the accused was seated in the front or rear seat of the vehicle, while the core allegations remained consistent. The court accepted this contention and held that such minor inconsistencies were natural, as the statements were recorded nearly two years after the incident.Relying primarily on the survivor’s testimony, which the court found to be consistent before the police, the magistrate and during trial, it held that the prosecution had proved the charges beyond reasonable doubt. The court also noted that the survivor’s medical examination recorded her allegation that the accused had sexually assaulted her and documented injuries to her genitalia, which corroborated her testimony.“The presence of the aforementioned injuries… confirms sexual assault, thus strengthening the prosecution’s case,” the court ruled.Special Judge Poonam-II held the accused guilty under sections 5 and 6 of POCSO Act and Section 376AB of IPC. While deciding the sentence, the court applied Section 42 of the POCSO Act, which requires punishment to be awarded under the provision prescribing the more severe sentence. It observed that Section 376AB of IPC, incorporated by the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018, provided a more severe punishment for the rape of a child below the age of 12.Section 5 of the POCSO Act defines aggravated penetrative sexual assault, while Section 6 prescribes punishment for the offence, stating a minimum punishment of 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment, which may extend to life imprisonment, along with a fine. Section 376AB of the IPC provides for rigorous imprisonment of not less than 20 years, which may extend to imprisonment for life for the remainder of the person’s natural life, or death, and also carries a fine in cases of rape of a girl below 12 years of age.
