Mumbai POCSO court sentences two men to 20 years for kidnapping and raping a 14-year-old girl in 2020 | Representational Image
Mumbai: The special POCSO court on Friday sentenced two men to twenty years imprisonment for kidnapping and sexually assaulting 14 years old in January 2020. The accused had claimed that the girl is addicted to narcotics and was in fact following them to buy drugs. The court rejected their defence and said even of she was following them to buy drugs there was no reason for them to rape her.
The special judge Priya P Bankar, while convicting the accused for sexual assault on the girl, observed that, “Though her (victm’s) evidence shows, the addicted people go nearby the spot of incident, itself is not the reason to hold that the victim was also there for drugs. Further, even if it is accepted for the sake of arguments that the victim was on the spot for the drugs, it will not be a reason to sexually assault a 14 years old girl.”
As per the prosecution case, registered with RCF police station, the victim had claimed that, on January 30, 2020, she had gone to repair her watch in a nearby vicinity. While she was proceeding, she found two boys were following her. She went down to the bridge, where one of the accused held her hand and another caught her.
The girl claimed that they dragged her towards the hill. The victim began shouting but, they did not leave her and they were not leaving her. In fact, one of them suggested taking her to a hill where no one can spot them. There, the girl claimed that the accused raped her. Thereafter the girl who was scared went home. It was only on the next day she revealed the incident to her father and the case was lodged.
The accused in their defence had claimed that there was no reason for the victim to go outside the house at night time and as the victim was addicted to drugs, she went there in search of drugs. The accused had further claimed that it was the girl who was following them to get drugs.
The accused claimed that She was demanding the same to the accused persons but they refused and asked her to go and even handed over the victim to their friend but the victim did not listen to them and falsely implicated them.
The court however, rejected their defence and observed that, “If at all, the incident had happened that the victim was demanding drugs and following the accused and they handed over her to her friend to drop her at her house, there was no reason to state against the accused that they have raped her. The said act of the accused cannot be called as provocation, to falsely implicate them by making such type of serious allegations, when the reputation of the victim and her family is at stake.”
