India, Feb. 10 -- While upholding the conviction of a man under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the Bombay high court (HC) last week reduced his punishment from life imprisonment to 12 years in jail, taking into account, among other things, the certificates he had earned from participating in programmes on reading Mahatma Gandhi's thoughts, writing essays and analyses of books, during his period of incarceration.

The accused, a resident of a Ghatkopar chawl, was 20 years old when he committed aggravated sexual assault on a five-year-old girl - his neighbour's daughter - in December 2016. He was convicted in 2020. While the HC found no fault in the special POCSO court convicting the man for the crime, it cited...