Man sentenced to 20-year RI for sodomising minor

New Delhi, June 24

“The purpose of the criminal justice system is not only to punish the offender but also to rehabilitate the victim,” a court here said while sentencing a man to rigorous imprisonment of 20 years for repeated sodomy of a minor boy in December 2020.

The court also awarded Rs 20 lakh compensation to the victim, who the court said was scarred physically and mentally forever.

Additional Sessions Judge Preeti Parewa was hearing the case against the 38-year-old man who was convicted last month under Section 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, besides sections of the IPC for unnatural offences, criminal intimidation and voluntarily causing hurt. The man was also convicted under Section 66E (punishment for violation of privacy) under the IT Act.

The court noted that the convict committed “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” more than once with the victim, besides forcibly recording video clips of the minor’s private parts and threatening to make these clips viral.

According to the defence counsel, the convict was a daily wage worker with a monthly income of Rs 7,000 and his family comprised elderly parents, wife and three children.

The court sentenced the convict to 20-year rigorous imprisonment under Section 6 of the POCSO Act. The court also sentenced the convict to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) for committing unnatural offences, two years of RI under the IT Act, one year of RI each for committing sexual harassment and causing hurt and one-year simple imprisonment for criminal intimidation. The sentences will run concurrently, the bench said.