Mumbai A girl can easily understand the difference between good and bad touch, a special POCSO (the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012) court at Dindoshi observed while rejecting the claim of a 55-year-old city resident that he had no sexual intent when he touched the girl, and convicted him for an aggravated sexual assault on the minor based on the girl’s testimony.
Special POCSO judge DD Koche said, “A girl or a lady can easily understand the difference between a good touch and a bad touch and the court has to accept what the survivor’s sixth sense suggested to her.”
The court accepted the testimony of the 11-year-old girl, after finding it trustworthy and convicted Fekuram Jogi, the father of the girl’s boyfriend. The special court sentenced him to the prison term that he had already undergone – six years and eight months.
The prosecution alleged that Jogi, a resident of Borivali west, had on September 8, 2015, kidnapped and taken the girl to his native place in Chhattishgarh along with his wife and son Ajodhya, the girl’s boyfriend.
After the girl’s relatives, with whom she was staying in Mumbai, lodged a missing report with the Gorai police, police found out that the girl was in Chhattishgarh with Fekuram’s family. The police contacted them and the girl was brought back to the city by Jogi’s family. He was arrested on his arrival in the city on September 12, 2015, after the girl revealed that he tried to rape her.
The 11-year-old alleged that while at their native place in Chhattisgarh, at night she slept in the hall of Jogi’s house along with his wife, whereas, the convict had slept in the kitchen. At night, she alleged, he came to them and inappropriately touched her.
On the basis of her statement, Jogi was booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for kidnapping, rape, and aggravated sexual assault – sexual assault on a child less than 12 years of age.
Jogi pleaded not guilty and contested the charges, primarily claiming that though he went to the hall where the girl had slept, he did not have any sexual intent when he touched her. He claimed that he had just put a blanket on the girl when she suddenly woke up and shouted as she was frightened.
The special court, however, refused to accept the defence. The court said the girl had specifically stated in her testimony that the accused touched her with bad intention and it must be given a due weightage.
As regards the charge of kidnapping, the court concluded that the girl on her own went with them to Chhattisgarh, after she was informed by one of her friends that her boyfriend was going back to his native place. Despite this, the court held Jogi guilty of kidnapping as well, for his failure to inform the girl’s local guardians that she was travelling with them.
