New Delhi: Making a child touch one’s private parts with sexual intent amounts to aggravated sexual assault and attracts punishment under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, Delhi High Court has observed. Justice Neena Bansal Krishna dismissed a man’s appeal against his conviction and sentencing under Section 10 (punishment for aggravated sexual assault) of the Act for flashing his private parts before a girl and making her touch them in June 2022. She was three years and 11 months old at that time.The man, a tenant in the minor’s house, was convicted by a trial court in July 2024 and sentenced to seven-year rigorous imprisonment.The high court also rejected the accused’s claims that the survivor was tutored to frame him and there was no incriminating evidence against him. The HC noted that the core allegation of sexual assault remained consistent in the survivor’s testimonies and minor variations in expression did not affect her credibility.The judge said an authorised govt counsellor helping the child deal with the trauma could not be called “tutoring”. “The entire narration of the incident in the presence of the appellant and the fact that he himself reached a police station even before the complainant and family did, reflect the truthfulness of the testimony of the child and her mother,” the judge noted. She also refused to accept the accused’s argument that there was a delay in registration of FIR, saying that it was “natural” for the minor’s mother to await her husband’s return from another city before approaching police. She agreed with the trial court’s observation that sexual abuse of kids is seldom reported due to shame and guilt, and in the name of family honour.The high court, however, set aside the conviction and sentence of the appellant for certain offences, such as sexual harassment, under Indian Penal Code since no charges were framed for the same.
