A 60-year-old man has been jailed for 10 years by a court here for sexually assaulting a four-year-old child in a temple where she had gone to take 'prasad'.
Additional Sessions Judge Illa Rawat held Sunder Lal, a vagabond and Haryana native, guilty of aggravated penetrative sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The court also directed the Delhi government to pay a compensation of Rs one lakh to the girl under the 'Restorative and Compensatory Justice' scheme.
"The convict, who was of the age of grandfather of the victim child, took advantage of the fact that she had come alone, without any other family member, to the temple, to take 'prasad'.
"Since, the victim used to go to temple everyday to take 'prasad', as is brought out from her testimony, it is possible that the convict, who himself is a vagabond, had been keeping an eye on the movements of the minor child, waiting for appropriate moment to act," the court said.
It also said that the victim was a vulnerable tender aged child and she was clueless about the acts and advances of lal and she cried when she felt pain.
According to the prosecution, the incident took place in April last year when the child, as a daily routine, had gone to take 'prasad' in the morning in a temple in Rani Bagh here.
Finding the minor alone, Lal caught her in the temple itself and sexually assaulted her, it said, adding that hearing the child's cries, her mother rushed to the temple and she was an eyewitness to the act. Police was informed and Lal was arrested.
