The Andhra Pradesh’s special sessions judge sentenced a 17-year-old boy to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for sexually assaulting a 7-year-old girl under the POCSO Act.
The judge imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on the accused.
Also, the court ordered the government to pay a compensation of ₹1 lakh to the survivor within a time period of 30 days of the order’s receipt.
According to the Deputy Superintendent of Police in Anakapalli district, Malla Maheswara Rao, the incident took place on May 8 & May 9 in 2022.
The survivor’s parents were daily wage laborers and the girl was in the 2nd grade in school when the incident took place.
On May 8, when the girl was playing outside her house, the accused, who lived opposite to the survivor’s house took the girl to his house and then sexually assaulted her.
After that also, he again took the survivor to a cashew nut plantation near the hillock village, when her parents were not home, and again he sexually assaulted and raped her.
On May 11 last year, the survivor’s mother lodged a complaint against the accused. Based on the complaint, a case was registered under section 376 of the Indian Penal Code, section 5 (1) (m) read with 6 of the POCSO Act, 2012.
Since the accused was a juvenile, the police produced him at the juvenile court. However, after seeing his physical appearance and mental ability, the case was transferred to a POCSO court by considering him an adult.
The POCSO court on Monday convicted the boy in the case & ordered that he’ll serve in the juvenile home till he turns 18 years old, after which he should be shifted to the civil jail.
Also, the mother of the victim said she was satisfied with the accused getting a proper punishment for his crime.
