MUMBAI: A special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) in Dindoshi has sentenced a 31-year-old man to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment for sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl who was supplied through a prostitution racket operating from a flat in Andheri (East).
Additional sessions judge Ashwini D Lokhande held that a paying client cannot escape criminal liability if the victim is a minor. “No one is allowed to have sex with a girl below 18 years of age either with or without her consent,” the court said.
The court convicted Vinay Fatebahadur Pathak of penetrative sexual assault under POCSO and imposed a fine of ₹20,000. His co-accused, Renu Ganesh Mishra, was convicted under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act (ITPA) for running a brothel and living off the earnings of prostitution. She was sentenced to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment.
The case stems from a raid conducted on May 30, 2023, by MIDC police at a building in Chakala, Andheri, following a tip-off that a woman was supplying minor girls for prostitution. The police then laid a trap using a decoy customer and marked currency notes. During the raid, officers found the 17-year-old girl and Pathak inside a bedroom. According to the prosecution, Mishra had negotiated a deal with Pathak.
During the trial, the prosecution examined the survivor, the decoy customer, panch witnesses and members of the raiding team. The court accepted the survivor’s testimony that she had been taken to Mishra’s house and asked to have sexual relations with customers. She told the court that she had sexual intercourse with Pathak in the bedroom on the day of the raid. The judge held that the survivor’s account remained consistent across her police statement, her statement before the magistrate and her testimony before the court.
Rejecting the defence argument that the accused could not be convicted without medical evidence, the court noted that the survivor and her mother had declined medical examination but held that this did not weaken the prosecution case. Relying on precedent, the judge observed that “conviction can be based on sole evidence of the victim if it is found trustworthy and reliable,” and concluded that the survivor’s testimony in the present case was “clinching, reliable and trustworthy evidence”.
The court also dismissed the argument that a “customer” in a prostitution case could not be prosecuted. It ruled that while such a customer might not attract liability under certain provisions of the ITPA, he could still be prosecuted under the POCSO Act if the person involved was a minor. Emphasising the strict statutory bar, the judge observed: “No one is allowed to have sex with a girl below 18 years of age either by his consent or without consent.”
At the same time, the court partly accepted Mishra’s defence on the trafficking charge. The judge held that the prosecution had failed to prove that she had recruited or transported the minor through threat, coercion, deception or abuse of power as required under Section 370 of the IPC.
However, the judge found sufficient evidence that Mishra was running a brothel from her flat and living on the earnings of prostitution. The evidence showed that she had negotiated the price with the decoy customer, accepted ₹2,000 and distributed ₹500 to the minor, keeping the remaining amount with herself.
While deciding the punishment, the court awarded the minimum sentence prescribed under law rather than the maximum. In Pathak’s case, the judge noted that he is married and has a dependent family, and therefore imposed the minimum 10-year term instead of life imprisonment.
Similarly, while sentencing Mishra under the ITPA, the court observed that she has dependents, including a child and her father, and awarded the minimum seven-year term instead of life imprisonment.