The court affirmed that a child's credible testimony, corroborated by medical evidence and the POCSO Act's presumption of guilt, ensures conviction for aggravated sexual assault.

JUDGMENT :

MANOJ KUMAR OHRI, J.

1. The present appeal has been preferred assailing the judgment of conviction dated 31.01.2020 and the order on sentence dated 04.02.2020 passed by the learned Special Judge (POCSO Act)/ASJ-05 (Central), Tis Hazari Courts, Delhi, in Sessions Case No. 628/2017 arising out of FIR No. 172/2017 registered at P.S. Kamla Market. By way of the impugned judgment, the appellant was convicted for the offences punishable under Section 6 POCSO and Sections 376 /506 IPC . He was, however, acquitted of the offence under Section 366 .

Vide the impugned order on sentence, the appellant was sentenced to undergo RI for a period of 15 years along with payment of fine of Rs.5,000/- in default whereof he would undergo SI for 6 months, for the offence punishable under Section 6 POCSO. Additionally, the appellant was sentenced to undergo RI for a period of 2 years along with payment of fine of Rs. 2,000/- in default whereof he would undergo SI for 6 months, for the offence punishable under Section 506 IPC . Both sentences were directed to run concurrently and the benefit under Section 428 Cr.P.C. was extended to the appellant.

2. The case of the prosecution, as culled out from the complaint, is that the same was lodged on 08.07.2017 on the statement of the child victim, aged about 9 years. The child victim stated that on 07.07.2017 at about 8:00 p.m., she was going to the open gym park near her house to bring home her two younger sisters who had gone out to play. The appellant, whose kids were also playing in the park, was also going there to bring them back, and the child victim accompanied him. In the park, the appellant made the child victim sit on his lap, lowered her underwear, and inserted his finger into her private parts. When the child victim felt pain, she cried out; however, there was nobody immediately around them as the other children were playing at some distance. The appellant threatened the child victim not to tell anyone about the incident, otherwise he would burn her, and the child victim got scared. On returning home, when her parents asked why her underwear had blood spots on it, she initially stated that she had been hurt by a swing; however, she later told her mother that the appellant had inserted his finger into her vagina, and the mother thereafter informed the child victim's father.

The matter was then reported to the police, leading to registration of the subject FIR. Upon completion of the investigation, the chargesheet was filed, and charges were subsequently framed against the appellant under Section 6 POCSO and Sections 366 /376/506 IPC , to which he pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.

3. The prosecution examined 11 witnesses in support of its case. The child victim herself was examined as PW-2. Her father and mother were examined as PW-4 and PW-5 respectively. The principal of the school that the child victim was attending at the time was examined as PW-6 to establish the child victim's age. Dr. Neelam Yadav, who conducted the medical examination of the child victim and proved her MLC, was examined as PW-3.