A youth has been sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment for repeatedly sodomising an eight-year-old boy by a Delhi court which observed that such offences make a permanent bearing on the child's mind.
Additional Sessions Judge Raghubir Singh sent 22-year-old Vikas, resident of Mayur Vihar, to jail for sodomising and threatening the child who used to reside nearby.
"The offences of like nature make a permanent bearing on the child's mind and the sufferings, mental and physical, can only be imagined as such like assault do affect the child for long time," the court said.
The court also relied on the statements of the victim and his father and the medical report which confirmed that the minor was sexually assaulted.
It imposed a fine of Rs 4,000 on the convict and directed the East Delhi Legal Service Authority to give compensation to the child as per the provisions of the Delhi government's victim compensation scheme.
An FIR was lodged by the child's father in March 2013, at Pandav Nagar Police Station in east Delhi alleging that the minor was sexually exploited and beaten up by Vikas several times.
A case was registered against Vikas under sections 377 (unnatural sex) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC and under the provisions of Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
During the trial, the youth claimed that he was falsely implicated by the child's father who wanted to extort money.
The court, however, rejected the claim saying his ground adds absurdity to the vague and baseless defence.
"It is very much clear that the prosecution has duly established the charges framed as against the accused beyond reasonable doubts. It stands proved that the accused committed sodomy with the eight-year-old victim on a number of occasions," it said.
The court said it has also been established that the youth used to criminally intimidate the victim on each and every such occasion and he committed aggravated sexual assault on the child.
