New Delhi, Feb 22: A court here has sentenced a man to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for kidnapping and raping a one-and-a-half-year-old girl in 2019, saying the abhorrence of society for sexual predators should find reflection in the judgments of the courts.
Additional Sessions Judge Manoj Kumar was hearing the argument on sentencing against the accused, who was in December last year, convicted under the penal provisions of rape and kidnapping and for aggravated penetrative sexual assault under Section 6 of the POCSO Act.
In its verdict dated January 15, the court said the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act of 2012 was formed in the face of an alarming rise in offences against children and society’s cry for justice.
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It said, “Hence, the abhorrence that society as a whole has towards sexual predators targeting children also should find reflection in the judgments of the courts.”
The court said the mitigating circumstances in the case were that the 31-year-old convict was young and could be reformed. Besides he had clean antecedents and did not appear as a danger to society.
“On the other hand, the convict has committed the offence of aggravated penetrative sexual assault or rape upon the victim girl aged one-and-a-half years. Thus, the act of the convict is bound to have serious consequences on the mental health of the victim and would affect her normal life,” it said.
The court then sentenced the convict to rigorous imprisonment (RI) of 10 years under Section 6 of the POCSO Act and three years RI for the offence of kidnapping.
Both sentences will run concurrently, it said.
Observing that “the purpose of the criminal justice system is not only to attain catharsis by handing down proportional punishment to the offender but also to rehabilitate the victim, who is scarred physically and mentally, forever,” the court awarded Rs 13.5 lakh compensation. (PTI)
