Mumbai: A special POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012) court recently sentenced a 49-year-old brother-in-law of a woman, who ran a private childcare centre in Dadar, to five years imprisonment for sexually abusing a seven-year-old girl.
As per the prosecution case, the complainants used to send their daughter to the creche since the girl was one-and-half-year-old. On January 8, 2021, the woman met the girl’s parents and expressed a desire to see their daughter who was now seven years old.
Two days later, the complainant’s mother informed her that girl’s father had taken her to the owner’s house and dropped her there on January 10, 2021. The owner requested the girl’s father to let her stay with them during the day and she would drop her back at their house in the evening. The family agreed.
The prosecution claimed that while the owner was away, her brother-in-law molested the girl. The child revealed that the accused also showed her explicit videos on her mobile and hence she started crying.
The girl narrated the incident to her parents and her neighbour, following which the family approached the Bhoiwada police station.
The defence, however, claimed that the accused was implicated in a false case as he had given a friendly loan to the parents of the girl child and had asked them to return the amount.
The court, however, observed that “there was no documentary evidence to show that he has given any loan to the father of the victim or any CDR etc. to show that he has demanded money by making phone calls.”
Accepting the testimony of the child, the court held the accused guilty of sexually abusing the girl child. “The evidence of the child remains unshattered, the alleged offence of outraging her modesty is proved beyond a reasonable doubt. There is no reason to disbelieve her evidence.”
