Delhi HC upholds 12 years sentence of man convicted under POCSO for raping minor

The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed an appeal against conviction and sentence under POCSO Act for raping a minor The High Court upheld the 12 years sentence awarded to the convict in 2021 for raping a minor He was also awarded three years sentence for kidnapping the minorJustice Amit Bansal dismissed the appeal and said I find no infirmity in the judgment convicting the appellant for the offences under Sections 342363376 of the IPC and Section 6 of the POCSO ActIn view of the above there is no merit in the appeal and the same is dismissed Justice Bansal said in the judgement passed on August 14The bench said that the appellant has not been able to shake the version of the prosecution and the prosecution has successfully proved its case beyond reasonable doubtThe High Court held that the trial court has correctly observed that injury on the private partsin cases of sexual offences depends on various factors such as depth of insertion among others It is not necessary that in every case there would be an injury causedTherefore the mere absence of injuries cannot be a ground to hold that penetrative sexual assault did not take place Justice Bansal observedIt also said that the Trial Court has correctly observed that the victim was very young at the time of the incident and minor contradictions cannot be a ground to disbelieve her testimonyIn my considered view the statement of the victim recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC cannot be read in isolation and has to be considered In the totality of the given facts and circumstances and due weightage has to be given to the age of the victim which was four and a half years at the time of the incident Justice Bansal observedAppellant Ranjeet Kumar Yadav had moved an appeal seeking to set aside the judgmentpassed by the trial court on September 18 2021 and the order on sentence passed by the Tis Hazari Court on November 26 2021The appellant was convicted for the offences punishable under Sections 342363376 of the Indian Penal Code 1860 IPC and Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012 POCSOThe appellant was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for a period of twelve years for the conviction under Section 6 of the POCSO Act and three years of rigorous imprisonment under Section 363 of the IPC and six months of rigorous imprisonment under Section 342 of the IPCAs per the prosecution the victim a girl child of four and a half years was playing in thestreet outside her house on 11th June 2017 When the mother of the victim could not find the victim she sent her husband the father of the victim to look for herThe father of the victim reached the house of the appellant who was their neighbour and knocked at the door which was locked from inside He also called for the victim but there was no responseThe father of the victim after some time again went to the house of the appellant and called for the victim and received her response from inside the door After a couple of minutes the appellant dressed in his underwear opened the door and the victim was found present inside the roomThe father of the victim brought the victim back to their house and told the mother of the victim about the incidentThe victim then informed her mother that the appellant took the victim to his house gave her acirciquestiquestMango Frootiacirciquestiquest and after removing her underwear inserted his finger inside her private parts the Prosecution allegedAfter hearing about the unfortunate incident that happened with their daughter the parents informed the police The police on the basis of the statement of the mother registered the FIR under Section 376 of the IPC and Sections 46 of the POCSO Act at Police Station Gulabi BaghThe statement of the victim under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 CrPC was also recorded and the accused was sent for his medical examinationThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever