34-Year-Old Man Sentenced to Life for Brutal Rape of 4-Year-Old Girl on Bus, Attempted Disposal in Plastic Bag | Representative Image
Thane: The Thane special Prevention of Children Against Sexual Offence Act (POCSOA) court held a 34-year-old Santacruz resident Virendra Kumar Lahuni Yadav, originally from Uttar Pradesh, guilty of brutally raping a four-year-old child on a bus and further trying to dispose of the child, thinking it to be dead in a plastic bag, thereby flinging the naked child out from a running bus.
However, the child was noticed by two passersby, who rescued the child from the bag and admitted her to the hospital. The court, while deciding on the quantum of judgment, maintained that the entire incident of raping the minor and later disposing of her, thinking that the child was dead itself shows the mindset of the accused.
The court further held that the sexual assault was so brutal that the child fell unconscious, and such an assault does not deserve any lesser punishment. Thus, the accused was sent to life imprisonment for such a dastardly act.
The court presided over by judge D S Deshmukh while passing orders held, “The accused had committed aggravated sexual assault with a child aged 4 years 10 months which demonstrates the mental state or mind set of the accused. He took the victim child in his bus by asking the other children to get down from the bus. Then, he took the bus towards Vasai and in bus itself, he has done aggravated sexual assault on the child, due to which she sustained severe injuries on her body parts. Doctors had put 14 stitches on the victim’s wound. The victim was assaulted so brutally that she became unconscious. Thereafter, he put her in a plastic bag, tied it and then thrown away the said bag by the side of road. The act done by the accused is very heinous and he is not entitled for any kind of leniency,” the court held in its judgment.
The prosecution’s case dates back to the morning hours of December 20,2020, when the children staying in the Bholanagar, were playing in a stationed luxury bus owned by Yadav. However a few minutes later, Yadav came inside the vehicle and shooed away all the children from the bus except for the victim. Realising that their child was missing, the victim’s parents had filed a missing complaint about the child.
Meanwhile, Yadav informed the child that he was her father’s friend and lured the child with a free city ride. However after the bus moved a bit ahead from the vicinity of the child’s locality, he kicked the child in her chest and stomach and later also slapped her hard when she tried to raise an alarm by crying out loud.
The accused then did the demonic act with the child to such an extend that the child fell unconscious. Further Yadav, thinking that the child was dead, packed her along with his blood stained spoiled clothes, in a plastic bag and flung her in Sativali Vasai Road, in front of Bajaj showroom and fled from the spot.
A couple who were passing by the way, realised amiss, when they saw crowd near the showroom. Realising that the naked child who was full of bruises all over her body, and wrapped in a plastic bag with an intention of disposing off the evidence, the couple unwrapped the child, held her in a dupatta and took the child to the near by Waliv police station. The police gave the child with preliminary treatment and later she was admitted to Nair hospital.
Post the recovery of the child, when the court had to examine the child as a witness, she identified the accused as driver uncle who had assaulted her. Thus considering the police examinations along with the victim’s vital statement, the court held the accused guilty of raping the minor, thus holding him guilty under the stringent POCSOA charges, along with Indian Penal Code (IPC) offence of attempt to murder charges, thus awarding the accused with life imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 50,000.
