Ghatkopar resident gets life term for kidnapping, raping 7-year-old girl

MUMBAI: A special POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) court recently sentenced a 43-year-old man from Ghatkopar to life imprisonment for kidnapping and raping a 7-year-old girl while she was walking back home from a local shop in April 2022.

According to the prosecution, the man who was a stranger to the girl, kidnapped her in 2022. He took her near a forested area behind a school, raped, and threatened her. A woman outside the forest noticed the girl and contacted her mother, asking her to retrieve her daughter from the school premises. The mother filed a complaint with the Ghatkopar police, who registered a case against the accused. The police traced the accused, identified as a driver by profession, and arrested him for kidnapping and raping the child.

The survivor, in her deposition before the trial court, said she went to a nearby eatery to enquire an item’s price. When returning home, the man took her to the forested area under some pretext. The defence contended that the man was falsely implicated in the case, but the court noted the defence brought nothing on record to prove this. Observing that the offence needs to be viewed strictly, special sessions judge JP Darekar said, “The victim, in the present case, is a small child having no full parental support. There is no motive for her to falsely implicate anybody.”

The court said the witnesses who had seen the accused man with the girl had identified him in the test identification parade. It observed that the oral documentary and expert evidence adduced by the prosecution corroborate the case against him. In a detailed order passed on April 25, the special court said ‘the entire evidence produced on record by the prosecution, especially the consistent testimony of the victim, which was corroborated by medical evidence’ was consistent with the alleged rape.

The court awarded the accused maximum punishment for the offences proved against him and sentenced him to life imprisonment. It directed him to pay a compensation of ₹15,000 to the survivor. The special court also referred the case to the District Legal Services Authority for compensation paid to rape survivors under the state government’s Manodhairya Scheme.