Neighbour gets life imprisonment for raping 7-year-old boy in Noida

Greater Noida: A 28-year-old man was sentenced to life imprisonment and fined ₹81,000 by a court in Surajpur on Saturday, for sexually assaulting a seven-year-old boy in Noida’s Sector 135 in 2020, said officials on Sunday.

According to special public prosecutor Chavanpal Bhati, the convict Amit Chauhan, a labourer, was the victim’s neighbour.

On October 25, 2020, the victim’s uncle filed a complaint at the Expressway police station, saying that his nephew was playing outside his home last evening when the accused arrived on a bicycle and took the seven-year-old to a nearby farmland and raped him.

“The victim’s family members launched a search when they did not find him at home,” the prosecutor said, adding that later, they found the kid was walking back home from the field in pain.

“The child revealed that Chauhan raped, and thrashed him before fleeing,” he said.

An FIR was registered against the accused under sections 377 (Unnatural offence), 323 (assault) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) against Chauhan.

Chauhan was arrested on the same day from his residence. He was produced in the court and sent to judicial custody.

A chargesheet was filed on December 31, 2020 and the charges were framed on February 10, 2021. The prosecution produced six witnesses including the victim, complainant, victim’s grandmother, cops and doctor.

During the trial, the victim child told the court that Chauhan had visited his home and lured him for Halwa-Poori.

“He took me to a neighbouring field. There he molested me. He slapped me and said he would harm my father if I disclosed the matter to anyone,” the child told the court.

The survivor’s father told the court that Chauhan had also offered the child ₹500 if he brought his elder sister,10, to him. The victim’s uncle and grandmother also told the court that the accused had raped the child leading to injuries on his private parts.

Dr Kajal Jain, who performed the survivor’s medical examination, said that the victim had injury marks on his private parts and had inflammation. The reports revealed that the victim was sexually assaulted.

Meanwhile, the accused’s lawyer Kapil Kumar argued that the FIR was registered a day later and there was no sufficient evidence and hence his client should be acquitted.

“The accused is a daily wage labourer and very poor. He is a father to young children. He should be given less punishment as this is his first crime,” the defence lawyer told the court.

Chandra Mohan Shrivastava, special judge (POCSO Act) on Saturday relied on the testimonies of the prosecution and medical evidence, and convicted the accused, saying that the accused committed a crime of “extremely heinous nature against a minor boy”.

“Amit is sentenced to life imprisonment and fined ₹50,000 under Section 6 of POCSO Act; seven years of imprisonment and ₹30,000 fine under Section 377 (unnatural offence) of IPC and one year of imprisonment and ₹1,000 fine under Section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of IPC,” the court said on Saturday.