Last month, Bihar’s Araria POCSO court set an exemplary example of delivering quick justice after it heard a sexual assault case, examined witnesses, convicted the accused and pronounced the verdict – all in one day. The accused was awarded a life imprisonment sentence for raping an 8-year-old girl.
The court sentenced the accused and shut the case on October 4, 2021, however, the court order was released on Friday. Special POCSO Judge Shashi Kant Rai referred to one of Supreme Court’s observations in 2019 where it had said that “there is no bar on the pre-sentencing hearing taking place on the same day after passing the judgment of conviction if the accused and the prosecution are ready to submit their arguments.”
He said that the prosecution “was fairly able to bring home the charge of section 376(AB) IPC and charge of section 6 of the POCSO Act against the accused namely Dilip Kumar Yadav beyond all reasonable doubt”, and thereby found him guilty and read out the verdict of life imprisonment for him.
Yadav was convicted under 376 AB of IPC and Section 4 of POCSO Act. The medical and ocular evidence, too, supported the prosecution’s case.
The victim testified that Yadav raped her and explained the circumstance under which the crime was committed by the accused. The court found the girl’s testimony to be consistent to her statement under Section 164 CrPC. It also took into account the testimony of the victim’s 9-year-old brother, who said that he saw the accused Yadav in the room, the scene of the crime.
The court, in its order, said, “Admittedly, in the case in hand, the entire case is based on circumstantial evidence as well as direct evidence. The testimony of the PW 1 who happens to be the victim of the case suggest that her testimonies are consistent in view of Section 161 and 164 of the Cr.P.C. Similarly, the statement of the mother and father of the victim is also consistent and no inconsistencies has been brought by the defence in the cross examination. The PW 6 is brother of the victim who seen the accused with her sister and he is also one of the injured witness as the accused slapped him before committing the shameful act with his sister and he fled away from the place of occurrence out of fear.”
The court found that vaginal penetration happened after considering all the evidence produced by the prosecution. Regarding the veracity of a minor’s witness testimony, the court found that it passed out all the tests and her consistent statement in all the stages.
“…I am of the opinion that the offence which have been committed by the accused who is aged about 30 years and age of the victim girl who is a 8-9 years old who is about 20 years younger to accused who had not yet developed any sign of secondary sex, the accused does not deserve any leniency,” the court noted.
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