Pune: A special Pocso court in the city has convicted and sentenced a 40-year-old man to 20 years rigorous imprisonment for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl and showing obscene videos to her and her five-year-old friend in Aug 2020 in a locality under the Wanowrie police jurisdiction. Special judge Mahendra K Mahajan held that the testimony of the child victim was trustworthy and supported by medical and forensic evidence.The court found the accused guilty of offences under offences under sections 376AB (rape of a child below 12 years) and 354-A (sexual harassment) of the IPC along with sections 5 and 6 (both related to aggravate penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The court sentenced the accused under the Pocso provisions. According to case put up by special prosecutor Milind Datrange, the accused lived in the same neighbourhood as the families of the children. The accused’s son was a friend of both the girls and often used to visit his house. One afternoon in Aug 2020, he called the two minor girls, who were playing nearby, into his house and showed them obscene videos on his mobile phone. The accused then sent one of the girls outside the room and sexually assaulted the other child. The incident later came to light after the children narrated what had happened to their family members, following which a police complaint was filed with Wanowrie police station. During the investigation, the child was medically examined, the accused was arrested and his mobile phone seized. Forensic analysis later revealed obscene images and videos stored in the device. While convicting the accused, the judge said, “The evidence of victim is without any material omissions or contradictions. Evidence of witnesses has always some omissions, improvements and discrepancies. The witnesses are human beings, therefore, they cannot say the same facts in same chronological manner at every repeated times.” The court also rejected the defence argument that the case was falsely filed due to a financial dispute between the accused and the victim’s family.
